At first, it looks like a modern shooter with different guns and weird creatures and…Nolan North, but after a while it shows itself to be more of a Wolfenstein but with Russians. Then a Half Life and to be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about any of that but the idea has to do with time travel and being able to age and deage stuff. I've seen people say that it's not as good as it could be and it's really not but color me impressed when I saw that you could age a crate to make it all smushed, put it under a cracked open door and then de-age it to puff it up, prying the door open enough to crawl under. Like, tell me that's not cool.

But like the games I said, they explore these types of things a little more (aside from maybe the newer Wolfenstein games) but what's there is definitely fun to see and after this mechanic was introduced, it only seemed to get better.

You find a new element on the periodic table called E99 which you use to upgrade your tool and weapons and health so it's fun to collect. You also find weapon upgrades and blueprints so you can really fine tune it.

This is the Pc version and for some reason, sometimes it'll shoot more than I mean so say a shotgun will shoot twice instead of once, but it's not a big issue. I played it on normal and after the opening hours, ammo wasn't really as scarce.

It does have a thing or two to learn about storytelling though. The amount of times I heard the names Demichev and Barisov, that'd be the plot, it didn't have subtitles so it was a lot of mumbo jumbo most of the time. The beginning introduces you to this Demichev but that's about it, they talk about what a dystopia he's wrought but they barely show the guy doing it. You're expected to just wait until the end for a less than stellar battle and stupid reveal.

Kathryn is one of the reasons I started liking the game, she's a little like Alyx but she dies. I spoiled it for you, yes but the way I just explained it has about the same effect as it did in the story. It's an off-screen death after various time messages written on the wall warning you that it's going to happen and how it happens is-

You reverse the time on this boat to bring it back up and running long enough to get something off of it (as something of that mass will revert after so long) so there's this really cool segment of you escaping a ship that's falling apart around you and you're just about out but over the radio, Kathryn says that that's it, she's going in to get it. I was less than a minute before I got out and Barisov's there like "Yeah, she's gone but we can't let her death be in vain"…like never to be mentioned again, no sendoff, just written out of the story. That is until the ending, which I'll get to.

They give you an end game type ability where you can infinitely blast your impulse. It's kind of OP, I get it but I think if they were going to do that, they could've done better. You know how in Metroid, you upgrade your cannon to go through walls and in Super have this super duper blaster and in Dread just an annihilator. It should've been more like that than "infinite ammo", I like the color change from orange to blue but there's no visual difference other than that, it's not more powerful, just more, it doesn't even reach farther.

'Singularity' as in, the singular game this will have. There are 4 different endings and the main one's last line is literally- "Ha, what'd I tell you, there's never anything interesting here, right comrade." not a one of those endings is good or satisfying and just feels lazily pasted.

One of the common threads is that Kathryn appears alive in the literal last cutscene but in the past, writing the journal that started this whole journey…so many ways they could've set that up, so much there that I liked and was almost special just squandered in that last quarter, it didn't pay off. The way her death was handled actively ruined the game for me even if the story was already shaky from the start with the E99 bomb nonsense.

Poppin' bottles in the ice, like a blizzard.

The health bar changes everything, it gives me nightmares. This is the first Sly game flipped on its head. So rather than a one-hit KO (unless you gained a horseshoe) you now have a health bar, a lot of enemies had a one hit ratio in the last game but this one, they're less like Crash villains and actually fight back. This sets off your health bar as "alerted" or spotted which is later a feature in Assassin's Creed, there are even trailing and chasing missions.

There are no longer lives because of this meter and makes it so the levels aren't built the same way to where you need checkpoints. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing because I feel like the jumps are more responsive (that could also just be me with more experience now) but sometimes the controls are too responsive so if there's a wire underneath another or something then sometimes it picks the one that you're not aiming for which has blown my cover before. It would've been a lot simpler to just auto-death from that than to have to try to reset it myself by taking damage.

The levels are no longer portals, they're set up inside the hub world so that you enter whatever building it's leading you to or even take place in the hub itself. There are waypoints activated from your binocucom, mostly easy to find. I can't tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing though because on one hand it fleshes out the area that you're in but on the other hand, it diminishes the amount of variety that was allowed in the last game so one level may look like an extension to the last. But once again, each level acts towards a grander mission, except rather than just collecting keys (unless it's a mission on its own), you collect intel and sabotage the enemy's plans, it's more in depth and makes for some wacky shenanigans.

Making up for that lost variety, one of the big selling points of this game is that there are now multiple playable characters which means separate levels for each. Bentley excels in tech and long range Murray in destruction and Sly in stealth, so it is indeed like I remember it. Basically, (when playing as Sly) unless Bentley says otherwise, you shouldn't fight or you'll fail the mission. You can get away, in fact, you have a run button now since your walk speed is more sneaky but it's a little bit louder so it's really only for getaways. With each character, I feel a slight disadvantage for traversal but it's not too overbearing. (Only Sly can tightrope walk and such)

Without horseshoes, you now have all these leftover coins and I've mentioned this in other games and this one actually follows through, it lets the coins act as currency to buy useful items, in this case the stuff that you would've unlocked from the bottles in the first game.

So, now the levels no longer hold the bottles but the hub worlds do. This makes it a bit harder because like I said with "unless Bentley says so", if you've started something to do with a level, go too far away from the area you've chosen and Bentley might make you abandon it. So only collect at certain times because it's easier when there's less to keep track of. (That's a good euphemism for this game overall tbh, it's a flip flop whether it's better or worse than its predecessor)

The vault is held in one of the levels but since it could be any of them, you do have the chance to go back to that level once you find it if you haven't had the chance to collect them all the first time around. The bottles still give you abilities, exclusive ones that the coins won't net you, so you actually have more abilities than the first game.

I've complained enough about the differences.

One of the games that I want more of is Beyond Good and Evil and I just haven't found anything like it...until I played this game, I mean you even get to take pictures (not like you would on PS4) but it's nice to see it implemented into the gameplay, especially seeing as BGAE came out just a year before this. And as much as I loved the first game, this one actually actively gave me ideas for how good that supposed movie could've been, it's just a shame we lost it (though maybe a blessing as well?)

I enjoy the story of this game more and while there are some things better, there are some things worse and I think my favoritism of the overall picture would be ratioed to Thievius Raccoonus.

Toradora... I mean, Yakuza Foura.

You start out with a different protag, Shun, and I actually like him, he's just a financial dealer that allies with homeless people, the Yakuza are just stuck in his path for better or worse which I think is nice to set yourself outside of the box for a minute.

It really gives a new perspective on Kamurocho in general because you're no leader of it, you're just a guy that sees trouble all the time. You know of Kazuya but so does everybody else, you know what he's done, you see its effects. For one, you can knock people's teeth out, including your own!

I like that your allies are homeless people. But it goes beyond that, shows just how deep this goes through the eyes of different characters. And man, I understood why people liked Majima but I get more reasons every time, he's not just one thing, he's kind of the unsung protagonist of this saga.

With Saejima, his route (literally) navigation is dumb. It makes sense to venture into the underground but you get twisted all around and it just gets tedious. It made me not want to do the side stuff because I didn't know what route to take, so make sure that you do whatever you're going to do as soon as it's introduced to you, that way you can keep track of it. If not, there's a place at the end of the game before the final battle where it lets you revisit all the characters and their side missions to your leisure, but you still have to follow the weird routes with Saejima.

Now, next is Tanimura who is a 29 yo. Hey, wait, the plot takes place over 25 years so this guy-That's smart, could've been cool if he was born then but to show just how much time has passed to have a whole new generation be in line. This is the part where I decided I was going to take my time with it, I'd spend days doing side-quests and just leveling up because the first two seemed like they were fleeting.

With an action game of this caliber, you begin to see the calm in the eye of the storm. Check out the Hangout or the Cuez Bar in the underground mall where Lyn Inaizumi type music plays. It's nice. Meeting characters like Nair and learning her movesets and story, it's like a story away from the story but good enough to be apart of yours personally.

Lastly, our original protag, Kiryu, that gets roped into this and kind of expands on what happened in Yakuza 1. I would like to see a game expand on what happened while Kiryu was in jail but I do see us getting a ton of spinoffs already so it's probably not far behind.

There are a lot of enemies with batons that I've come to despise and always took me the longest, never learned how to handle them. It's got a weird obsession where it tries to impress you or fake you out. "Uh-oh, someone got shot but did they actually get shot? Or is it a twist murder?"

But this game is in a weird spot for me rank wise because it has the ingredients to be great and perhaps even second favorite so far due to its scheme, story, characters and gameplay toss-up but it's also the most disappointing because it could've used those elements to much greater effect so I can't really say what I prefer it over or if I prefer others over it, I'm in the middle with it and even after a nice break of time to settle my opinion, I feel the same way, so I may just never get over that.

This is actually the first PoP game that I bought because, well- Just look at it. It appealed to me most, he's got what looks like a cybernetic hand, a blue and red head scarf keeping some sort of mystery about him, nice balance between grit and cartoon. And really even the gameplay, a big wide open world, and the girl stays right along side you. It was the makings of something great, but then...I played it.

I don't even know if it was two hours. I just felt like I had enough, like I had seen everything it had to offer already and here's why:

Background information first. The game has a decent story with the Prince looking for this donkey that has a bunch of treasure alluding for an adventure that happened off screen when he comes across Elika who is being chased and one thing leads to another and she releases darkness out of a tree. Ok, maybe that doesn't sound too great but it's more character based. The struggle between her and her father is interesting as you see the darkness overtake him, which gives you all the reason to bring an end to this madness. You see flashbacks of her because she doesn't really want to talk about what's going on or give you context so it's fed to you little by little, she's not even interested in the Prince, she just sees him as beneficial to her journey and over time the two grow fond of each other, which is how it should be.

The cartoony nature lets for a variety of unique animations, like her climbing on your back when you're climbing up vines, doing a little twirl when you switch positions, catch each other when they fall and just overall a ton of fun stuff that makes up for the fact that you can't play as her. Unfortunately, the Prince really just makes jokes, he isn't given much, they made him too pun-oriented as even Nolan North was confused by it but whatever, it's a disconnect. So what's the issue here?

Well, you have to get your fair share of light orbs- wait a second- I just played Twilight Princess! Yeah it's that but it's the whole game. Like there aren't even enemies to keep you busy really. It splits the map up into sections where you climb these huge towers and trek landscapes to get to what amounts to a fountain, you fight a boss at the fountain, unlock it, and poof, light appears so you backtrack through the level (which does have varying paths but you definitely backtrack) in order to collect the orbs. There're little dark blobs that block your way sometimes and platforms can indeed have an enemy every now and then but it's not rewarding for anything, you don't get light, you don't get currency, you don't get anything, they're just another obstacle, not anything special, just a random nuisance.

The combat is a lot different, it has a sort of fighting game element where it locks you in a battlefield, and you skirt around each other like Contest of Champions. It's not "bad" but it can be annoying because of the control scheme. I learned it over time but it basically creates its own buttons. Red glove. What does it refer to? What did you map that button to? Grey glove, uh, block? Sword is obvious. But it doesn't show you the buttons, just the symbols and it's not much more in depth than that. I played this on PC and honestly those colors resemble the Xbox control style, the PS3 version has the actual buttons (and I don't have an Xbox controller so I had to fight with my PS4 controller to figure it out) but I think it helped that I played with a controller this time around because I used a keyboard and mouse on that dropped playthrough.

You get the rapid press sometimes but it's not necessarily how fast you press it, it's how early you start. And like sumo wrestling, getting too close to the edge for either of you will lock you in a heated quick time event to launch the other over the edge.

Perhaps one of the divisive parts though is that you don't "die". It's like this, falling will just have Elika catch you and put you at the last platform. Fighting, you're given a chance to save yourself with a quick-time event and even if you fail, the enemy just heals themself a little.

Then you have the "hub" of sorts which leads to the temple but traveling this empty wasteland takes a while because of your walk speed. I don't mind it in the confinement of these areas with the structures but when there's nothing there and you're just trekking...speed it up. Luckily if you unlock the fountain then you can fast travel.

They even have cool traversal methods that you learn by taking so many light orbs back to the temple (in the hub) but they're not free abilities, they're limited to where the spaces are. The "power plates" eww, that's their official name? You couldn't say like "Ephereal Tiles" or some sort of lore based jargon like spirit energy emits from them, juicing you up with power for a short burst? Spirit Burst?

And you have what amounts to this huge wide open and lush background painstakingly created with breathtakingly beautiful places that you can't wait to explore but you barely even notice them. Like you probably see this picture and think what fun is in store for that place and what set-piece it might hold but the camera pits you against these wood and stone structures and that's about it, the rest goes relatively unnoticed, you don't go and walk around these places at all like you'd expect.

There's a PoP retrospective on YT. He mentioned that it's enjoyable playing as a side gig, just something to turn music on and play like it's Minecraft parkour and so I lodged that in the back of my brain and here I am, with a new approach and a new opinion on a game that I thought I'd never return to.

So I'm done complaining because I did indeed keep coming back to it and enjoying myself by viewing it from a movement standpoint. And yeah, it's not the best use of its appealing assets but I still found something in it.

This was my first Zelda game, yeah, I wasn't originally a Nintendo kid, but this game holds a lot for me. It represents my game skill in a way, I mean, I had no idea what I was doing when I first started it, barely got past the first sequence. It was only when I got into high school that I actually tackled it and I was on fire, I got all the way to the water temple and that's when I stopped. No real reason, just daunting. That and I had other things to occupy myself with.
The story is something else. You know something's rich when you can see yourself creating stories and fanfictions in your head from every little aspect and the lush variety of characters. Just the idea of being in that world is enough to be satisfying which is enough to say that you've achieved something great. And because of that, it's satisfying no matter what port you're playing.

In part, some of that is due to its similarities to Ocarina of Time. There were a lot of points where things felt really familiar but I've never gotten that far before but at the same time, in other ways, it challenges your perspective. Take Midna, she's probably one of the most enjoyable companions in the series, they even make it as bold as to say she's the new Zelda. Picture this, a mysterious being, unlike you've ever seen before floats into your cell and offers to help you out but asking for repayment, telling you you're going to be some big hero in the end. Creepy but ok for now, she's on our side and we become human again. They even show how cute she is by having her eek whenever you dash, yawn every once in a while, do little gestures and pat your side when you don't use the controller for a while, she really wins you over.

Well, one of the spirits tells you that this power she seeks (and has been having us get), is probably quite evil so you start to question her methods, maybe she's with the baddie afterall. Then when you finally meet the main baddie (which isn't Ganondorf) face to face after hearing stories of him, he turns you back into a wolf but Midna saves you from death. You feel bad for doubting her and take her where she requests as she's dying, which happens to be off to Zelda who then in turn sacrifices herself because she sees the good in Midna and wants to…for lack of a better term, exploit that and give her light and being so she's no longer trapped in the twilight and can move freely. The same princess that surrendered to the baddie hoping to save Hyrule but only made things worse, where she failed, she saw an opportunity for others to prosper. Midna now having the approval and light of Zelda herself, the name of the game, the one that you know from the other games. That's some A-level commitment and payoff. And there're so many moments like that, that's not even to say the Princess is bad, she's actually one of my favorites.

The gameplay reinvents itself and always shows you something new, you can tell how masterfully crafted it all is just from the opening segment alone and how much it teaches you. It never felt dull or repeitive despite how memory served with the tears of light. I actually almost expected more of that to be honest. And it's a bit of an outdoorsman simulator, canoeing, horseback riding, herding, bug collecting, archery, fishing and let me just say I did not expect snowboarding in my Zelda game today but here we are and I'm in love, how could I not? It can be action packed then cozy. And there's a ton of stuff to collect to reach completion so play time can be anywhere you want.

I understand why they changed Zelda now though, I could see so many of these other elements from other games all basing themselves around Ocarina and its system but since it has most of what I like about Ocarina and most problems I had with it are easy-ish fixes that any updated version would be able to fix then this technically is my number one Zelda game right now and not just that but-

Ok, I'll actually finish the sentence this time because I'm shocked yet scared to admit it. This isn't just my favorite Zelda game now but one of my favorite games of all time, like no joke a top 3 candidate, it's that good. Easy 5/5. I think this is a once in a lifetime game where we may never achieve this type of Zelda game again.

Let's start with age. It has a remaster collection on PS3 but like the other big three of the PS2 era, they didn't port those over to PS4 or the PS store so you're kind of stuck with this one unless you buy a PS3. This is a game that was defining controls, you can tell what was a breakthrough by how they sell it in game too.

So the controls from time to time can seem a bit finnicky since it's PS2 era, but I imagine the remaster probably ironed out those issues since it runs on a different controller. Let me give you an example. Sly's tail has a blue sheen to it to indicate that he's following a track set up in game so that you can balance yourself better. You can break this track but it's easier to stay straight. It's not your masterful controlling doing this, it's the game. Press circle to latch onto stuff (small beams, ropes, etc.) The platforms can shake with momentum as you move on them, in water they start to sink but only where you're stepping. There were a lot of points where I was surprised to see the modern era take reference like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed, this game impressed me 21 years down the road.

I was thinking it was baby's first Splinter Cell but I was dead wrong, it's got variety. I like Splinter Cell, I'm not putting it down, I'm just stating the fact that some of these levels are quite different from the last, not just stealth. From environments like libraries and pirates ships to controlling a submarine to fight off crabs taking treasure chests and all that's within the first 'area'. Yeah, I said 'area'. I also said that this game was more linear. What I'm getting at is that there's a semi 'hub' or sorts where it's portals to levels inside of a level, you play those levels to grab whatever you may need to progress, it's cool and simple enough to keep track of when it's in bites but it's understandable how I could've gotten lost as a kid.

These areas are split between the five different villains or bosses of the game (which are all great btw), starting with the "missions" back at HQ, just like I remember. But if you don't finish that current mission right away and save and exit then you may need a refresher. How many levels can there be? Who's to say, I mean like I said, variety. I think there are seven levels to the first mission but that crab level was the shortest one of the bunch. What do you value in a level? Do you get everything there is to collect?

There are these bottles with little messages inside that collecting enough throughout the level will net you a code from Bentley which can be used for a vault found in that same level. You can go, get them on your first run. Or get some and come back later. It's up to you but the rewards are actually quite beneficial. You see jump is X, and latching is Circle and attack is Square but what's Triangle? Well, you want a fast attack? A roll? You want abilities? Sure, you get new abilities and none of these hidden ones are mandatory but it's a good incentive to thoroughly explore the level. You use the shoulder buttons to scroll through your favorites.

So length can be varying but let's put it this way, it's set up with lives, you run out and you have to restart the level as there are checkpoints otherwise. It's not a bad compromise though because for one, it gives you excuse to get those missed collectibles and two, it saves the collectibles you've already gotten pretty much no matter what so it's not that bad. You can even finish the level and come back and still have the same progress on collecting, I've collected them all before but had to restart because I did them out of order and I did a speedrun of the level in what? A minute? First run was maybe ten. But you really only get a one hit allowance and die if you land in water. You can also pick up level ups and horseshoes which gain you an extra hit or collect a hundred coins for a horseshoe.

So is it worth it? Let me put it this way. I mentioned how I went through a lot to get this game and when it came, it was packaged really good but it was already scratched and the case was dented before they even put it in there and during the cutscene after the first boss, it got stuck and start skipping. I wasn't positive that I could get it to work again so I asked this question. "Now that I've had a taste, (a demo if you will) would I be willing to buy it again in order to play the rest?" And the answer was yes.

It just felt so good to jump with X and press circle to step onto something. With a little elbow grease and improved controls, this game is pretty golden.

I had this game as a kid and I thought it was so hard so I never got anywhere but found it cool that you had these characters in a mansion environment, if only I could actually play it.

Those feelings of "it's too hard" kind of turned into "it's a cheap licensed game" after I figured out what that is over time so I just never tried playing it again. I even looked up some reviews of all the Scooby games at one point which none really seemed all that savory. Then one day, I was looking for some Scooby related clothes I could buy and couldn't find what I was looking for, nothing that said "medieval" or "ghost" and nothing said that more than the cover of this game, it always struck me as a kid. Like something out of a Goosebumps book.
So I went back to the source, this game. I got all three Gamecube games, starting with Night of 100 Frights because that cover always interested me since Charlie was on it but I never got to play it but ugh were the controls annoying, going too slow with walking speed, too fast with running and the sound effects repeated constantly. I ended up shutting it off and trying a different one first, because why not.

One thing I saw consistent in the reviews was that the opening cutscene is always a really nice homage but it seemed like all the Scooby games did that so it lost its novelty. With that said, with how cheesy the story and cutscenes are, it does feel like a Scooby Doo game, even the movements. There can be some overly long animations like climbing up on a crate but all in all it controls better than Night...why is that though?

It's not perfect but I think part of it is the mansion itself and how it's laid out. You're in close quarters but with enough variety and obstacles to not seem bland. Night wasn't bland, it was just more open so you can collect Scooby-Snacks so its faults were a lot more noticeable. In fact, the whole gameplay style has changed, rather than being a copy and paste, your goal isn't to collect Scooby Snacks, it's to, well, I'll let Velma explain it-

Sneaking is something that took me a long time to get over in games and it was Metal Gear Solid that made me finally get there but this isn't really a stealth game because you get this book that lets you absorb enemies into it using rapid presses of whatever button comes on screen.

So, no, it's not as hard as it was as a kid but that's because I made it harder than it had to be, I didn't understand that type of game yet or that you "could" be spotted by ghosts, just had to bypass them. I won't spoil the level variety but they just get longer from there. There are different sections of them and it does decent enough with pointing you in the right direction so you don't get lost and there are frequent save points but they're just longer winded is all. I'm convinced I never could've done those vehicle sections as a kid though, those gave me a run NOW.

It still falls for licensed game traps, especially using the same voice actors, hearing the same voice lines and sound effects over and over. They switch some up for the specific level you're on but like I said, those levels get longer. Sometimes they play over cutscene dialogue too. But all in all a decent experience that was never boring, I'm convinced enough to check out Night again and Unmasked now too.

In some ways it's better than 999 but in some it's worse.

The characters are pretty memorable, I was afraid it'd be staler than the eccentric personalities of the first game but it remains. A plus is that our new main character, Sigma, doesn't talk. (Well, he does, but he has no audible dialogue so he's not as annoying.) It carries over that problem from the last one too where they overexplain things like it's a children's game but it's rated M otherwise. Visually, it switches the 2D sprites with 3D models, which can be considered a downgrade in some ways but it's easier to navigate the rooms though with proper 3D environments versus simulated for the DS (it's the 3DS now) but it's put on this nice collection on the PC so it looks smoother and cleaner.

The one complaint I have about the port in general is that it could've cut some things out. I imagine the transition scenes were made to mask loading screens but we don't need them anymore and they're more tedious than Resident Evil's. While not as often, they take longer because they'll go somewhere and it shows them as a blinking dot on the map and the route they're taking (not that it matters most of the time, when it does matter, they reiterate the sequence anyway) but they'll show them going across an entire floor, go to the elevator, stop, show them pressing the button, the elevator comes, wait for the elevator to descend, beep, open doors again, back to map, show them moving to their destination again, it's just meaningless. And there's a skip but it's only for stuff you've seen before (in any route) so it usually doesn't include the transitions and when it does, it needs to be activated before it starts because it doesn't give you the option during.

And also (...) they have a tendency to (...) whenever (...) there isn't anybody (...) saying anything and (...) they'll show it (...) for each character. There were some parts where my experience was an error but I couldn't find proof of others being that way. Gaulem Bay for example, there are rows of (nonspoiling here) "lights" that some are on and some are off and you use that pattern to activate a puzzle, however, mine spelled out something different than what it was supposed to, I double and triple checked in game even after I looked up the result and the same answer got back to me every time.

All that remained was the ending. Would I find the outcome better than the last one? Because the other one reached a little too far in terms of what you could've predicted with the face thing. Well...this ending isn't much better. I actually had this game pegged as "great", I even accepted as far as the Phi ending and would've given it a 3.5/5 but it was afterwards that reversed everything.

It's like Meet the Robinsons but not as a good thing. It takes the time to explain every aspect of it and it's boring, because it's a large infodump and exposition for the next entry in the series...as an ending. So yeah, it seems like it's going to be a complete package but it's not a complete story, while 999 was at least contained enough to seem satisfying. And I mean it really threw the kitchen sink at you too. It has the regular endings and then two hidden ones before credits roll but then two more after credits roll so it never really knows when to stop either. People complain about Kingdom Hearts but that's nothing, this is the real menace, overcomplicating and recontextualizing everything. Kingdom Hearts explains its way over a whole series of games, that's people's only problem and it's an outdated problem now that all the games can be bought in one package for the same system but imagine taking the plot and obscurities of those games and doing it all at once at the end of just one game. "Imagine a cat. Imagine a truck. Imagine a line. This is my name. This is my actual name. This is what I am. This is what I actually am. Let's review our history. Just use E = mc2. Imagine the relationship between classical mechanics and modern physics"....You think I'm joking? You think I just pulled all those out of my ass?!

Trailers now and days spoil a lot when it comes to the finished product, something you wait years to release and even if the trailer doesn't spoil it, then the online community will. I seemed to have missed that childlike whimsy of picking up a game that had already been released or was about to release and know close to nothing about. So, I tried to replicate that experience and it worked. But this one I played a little differently because I came up with the bright idea to deprive myself of a whole genre. I say "genre" but really it's a franchise and clones like it, that franchise ended up being Zelda.

I chose Zelda because I had already unintentionally spent a good amount of time without it, so no new games and no old games in that time period. I purposely avoided anything that was labelled to be like Zelda (such as Genshin, Sonic Frontiers, etc). I was already a fan of Zelda so a new game was a sure win but I never played Breath of the Wild because by the time I got a Switch, Tears of the Kingdom (unnamed at the time) was already announced. So, this won't just be my experience with the game, it'll be my experience with Breath of the Wild and not just that but where the franchise has gone for over five years and boy has it changed.

Now I can climb (pretty much everything) and cook and run and jump! I have to pay attention to what I'm wearing because the environment might be too cold or hot. A time cycle. The storyline starts like a Ghibli movie, Zelda's voice is like a deadpan Lara Croft and on the first day of playing it, I realized that there's a lot more adventure than I thought. I barely played that first day because it was all so much to take in. So, I won't be describing the game, I'll be describing my experience.

In a world like this, why complain? Well...The frame-rate drops in trees but does pretty good elsewhere. There's no way to deselect while in the hand mode, you have to jump out then back in. You can't roll. The adventure is more about exploring and the puzzles are more about tinkering.

The horse can be annoying because you have to train its bond and get it a stable and get it to stay with you and they can be hard to control because "sometimes they don't want to go that way" or it's too precise with invisible barricades that it decides it can't jump over (i.e. a stone block in a ruin of stone blocks). And in a game ridden with mountains, you find yourself abandoning it half the time. If only it was a ghost like the companions...There was a bike in BOTW (hard not to know) but it's not in this one. Which all that would be fine if you could handle it in a timely manner but there were a lot of points where I regretted going in blind because while I was playing it, I felt like I was playing it wrong, it seemed like forever before I actually started getting anywhere once I touched down from the sky islands. I was so relieved the first time I found a stable because I didn't have to worry about losing it or anything, I could finally register him. Then I started the Rito Village quest and fell back into enjoying it but then the Eldin stuff drug me back down. It was a toss up.

All in all, it's a lot more RPG but in a world of prexisting RPGs, it almost doesn't feel like I was waiting for anything new, it has all these features that I've already seen before just not in Zelda and I'm not sure whether I prefer it that way either.

Open World specifically is the one I'm a little half and half on because it felt like I could spend days doing nothing, trying to find a way into somewhere to make some progress which in some cases just goes to show how good the game is, if you're willing to spend time doing side stuff and explore not only its environment but its gameplay but I don't know, this one felt a little too empty to me, like there were long stretches where I was just climbing or trying to go places. There are indeed wheels and different contraptions like I've pointed out to get moving but the threshold to get them is a decent length, especially if you don't know where you're looking for this stuff. You can't just pick them up and put them in your inventory either, you either have to find them out and about or already have them in your inventory from a rare drop or a capsule machine. Which wouldn't be so bad but those inventions you spend all that time building despawn (which makes sense for the hardware this is running on). But at the same time, there's a function that keeps a recipe in stock, you just need to have built it and...ok, it doesn't make sense, whatever. But even once you pass the threshold of finding a bounty of these "zonite" powered objects, you need that "zonite" to power them. Can be easy to fix but it would be just so much simpler without needing a battery change every five seconds and the more devices you run in tandem, the faster it depletes.

When I saw all these mechanics that people were pulling off with BOTW, I was thinking that the system was just that ingenious, that it just threw you into a playground and to some extent it does but I think it would've been better suited some other way. The surface is wet? Makes sense that you'd slip but sure as heck annoying. It chose accuracy over fun. If you're one of those people that hordes potions and items (like me) then this probably isn't the game for you. Especially since it takes forever to find what you're looking for, especially when you're scrolling to attach something to an arrow. It doesn't tell you what stuff does in that menu (Flashback to FF6), an easy fix would be a favorites list, Nintendo. Your weapons break very easily, I could be fighting an enemy and use my whole inventory, at least with Animal Crossing, it still lasted a while, I didn't have to worry about it breaking after my first tree.

And that blind feeling wasn't helpful because there were things that were really truly great and helpful like being able to use waypoints and having a tracker that you can use on pretty much anything that you've come into contact with already so long as you logged it in your compendium. But you wouldn't know that stuff if you didn't do the side-quests or rather the progression of them, because they started as something entirely different to get to that point. I was already past half way before I got all this helpful material that I could've used when I started and I didn't even see in any beginners guides when I checked. You can upgrade armor?? So I think that "not enough" of the game is set up on the main path, completely messing up the theory on how to make a good burger.

Why I think I liked Rito so much and not Eldin is because Rito (almost) resembled a dungeon of sorts and it was the first one I did but Eldin had a lot of empty space yet its scope seemed massive. I think open world is great if only taken in bites, not all at once. The Goron in Eldin (which he pronounces gore-own? But everyone else says gore-on?) is just uninteresting and so is his story then the cutscenes come into play where I started wishing we were without them again because I would move a little bit only to initiate another cutscene of him spouting obvious mousedung like "I think it's this way, oh I wonder where Zelda is, what do you think Link?" and it's the same silent answer every time, it's just stupid. There's no room for subtlety or guessing if he just tells you everything. (unlocks a door with five locks, sees one of the locks drop, Goron: "Just four more locks left!") Math!

His AI is pretty dumb too, his hitbox was inconsistent, not being able to be used as a shield but would get in my way whenever I needed to hit something. He wouldn't always be there when I did need him though, he'd kind of just stick around another platform (I assume since he can't fly and he's so big that he needs room?). Then this was just downright lazy, with the Wind Temple, you needed to find a way to undo four locks. Okay, worked well enough but then the Fire Temple has you do the EXACT same thing. It's bad from a story and a gameplay pov, it's just copy and paste in a different environment, different place, but same context. And GUESS WHAT? They're ALL like that.

Now let me talk about the underground. The overworld has these shrines that serve as little mechanic introducers and teleporting waypoints, you also get these lights from them that can net you a heart or addition to stam. The underworld has similar shrines too but it's horrible getting there, you spend it with the screen looking like this 90% of the time.

It's dark and these shrines light the place up except it fills the entire world. Even looking up shrine locations gives you coordinates but for one, there's no way to look at specific coordinates on the map, just your own and two, just because you have coordinates, doesn't mean you can take that path. Just like the overworld, there are mountains in your way, mountains that you can't see! Enemies riddle the area and blah blah, it seemed optional at the time so I noped out of there and stayed with overworld stuff but then I found out that a lot of what actually unlocks the stuff that I want is underground so it's best to get a good chunk of that out early. No reward for lighting these either so getting them all seems more like a hindering job so you can see the game than actual fun.

Now cosmetics are actually quite exemplary, there are a ton of costumes you can mix and match and collect, both new and old. With most games, this stuff can be picked up as drops, treated as achievements or set up in a shop for moolah. This is a mixture because some are indeed like that but the ones that you want, you're going to have to work for. By work, I don't mean difficulty though, I mean time. That underground holds a lot of these costumes, a lot of ones that you'll want and they're contained in chests, these chests will either be in the form of a coliseum where you fight an onslaught of enemies, including bosses...that you've already fought...I'll explain my problem with that in a minute but the other ones...those are scattered in chests and like I said, easy to find coordinates, tough as nails to actually trek to. I could spend an hour just cycling this environment, trying to get to where I need to be because there isn't a waypoint near it then after I get it, guess what, there's two more to the set. That's right, you've collected one third of the costume, now you need to get the other two pieces somewhere. I could spend 3 hours on just one costume. And you can upgrade these costumes to give you better stats but you need certain materials to do so.

Now the problem I have with the coliseums is that they're challenging but those types of things should be challenging, it's when it makes everything a chore that I begin to feel useless. I played for over 50 hours and only had 1/2 of the possible heart containers (which is still a good amount) but I never felt ready for any of the boss level characters because they'd always one-shot me and I'd understand if I was way ahead of where I was supposed to be, but I unlocked all but one section of the map at this point and with it being an open world game, these types of bosses are everywhere. My weapons had decent value but I was doing chip damage. There are foods and elixirs you can use to higher defense and attack but those only go so far and should only be additives, not mandatory, it nerfs your base health. If I can play 50 hours in a game and still feel weak then that's a problem with padding because I wasn't progressing fast enough or with the right stuff, I never really felt stronger. With Metroid, I always feel like I'm doing something, every single ability I unlock, every weapon, every door but this game makes it all feel null. Fuse as much as possible. Use as much as possible. Sleep as much as possible. Get as much as possible. Cook as much as possible. It's all very demanding of your time to actually try and have the time that you wish to have with this game, it sucks when you make time for it but it sucks it right out like it was nothing.

As far as story, there's a very weird origin and lore of the series that I'm still up in the air about. With franchises like this, I've started wondering whether they "should" cover the origin of everything this far in, that's what has me worried for Star Wars. But other lore is good because we have little things like Gerudos trying to run out of the rain because they don't like it and just that there are Gerudos running around in the first place is a step up because I always thought it weird that each kingdom had its own race but you only saw them there, nowhere else. You could argue that it makes the level design that much more unique but with an open world game like this, I kind of like seeing a mixed world with Avians, Gerudos, and Elves alike everywhere.

My guess the domains all act the same is because you "can" do them in any order but in doing that, even the cutscenes are reiterative, explaining the same event over and over after you defeat their boss. This nulls and dulls most of the story when it very easily could've been fixed with replacement scenes for whichever region you're in, it actually had potential when it started.

But let me let you in on a tidbit, not too much of a spoiler, just something so you know not to get your hopes up. When it was first revealed, they showed Zelda and Link together and the fans started thinking "What if you could play as Zelda?" this would've been an instant selling point but admittedly a better one to keep secret, well the sad news is that it didn't follow along with the fans. Normally I wouldn't dock it because of this because the only games that have done this were done so on a technicality but with this one in particular, they set up Zelda as "a mystery" and you're given pieces of what's happened to her throughout but I think it would've served everything better had they made these cutscenes, playable sections.

All in all, high highs but really low lows. The wait wasn't worth it. The hype wasn't worth it. Being blind was a mistake. The expectations were indeed impossible but I still think I grounded myself pretty well compared to many other titles I've waited just as long. Now was the 70$ price tag worth it? I can already tell you that it was a meaty game but that doesn't mean fulfilling. It really depends what you "want" out of a higher price game. I wouldn't charge that again for anything but I do understand that it must've taken some programming genius to get it to run on Switch (though Nier and Dark Souls are on there and Genshin runs on a phone!)

But I feel really bad and sad to say that every game that I played around this...I liked more. Now everything labelled as a "Of the Wild" style, I'm not going to be as interested in. I actually think I disliked it at times and it's been a while since I've truly disliked a game. In fact, Zelda is such a successful series that I've liked every game I've played ...except this one, making it by default, the worst.

I played the original 2 back to back so I took some time between 2 and 3 because I knew it was the last one clears throat but it puts me in a unique situation because I can view it fresh rather than trying to compare it oh so much.

So in terms of aging, it starts out very linear. There were a lot of things added with the Legendary Edition to the other games but this one, being the more recent one, didn't seem to get all the glow ups I think it should have. Controls can seem janky like trying to target what you're trying to select/interact/melee with. Running forces your perspective to whatever direction it requires. It carries over some of that darkness from before where I can barely see where I'm going at times, I've explained it before. I had a few bugs and glitches where something gets in the way or Shep will start floating, audio like a broken record, prompts that don't do what they say. PC might not have those same problems though.

I've heard it criticized as either the best or worst in the trilogy and now I see why. It focuses more on "action over RPG" as they describe it but there's a lot of welcome additions like the pummel. It just seems like it's trying to show you this spectacle yet it's PS3 Era explosions and kind of lame ones at that. The sky boxes can be gorgeous as well as busy though, so I guess it evens out a little bit.

I got to where I hit the Citadel DLC and decided that was a good time to break. I came back and my opinion of this game was changed. The writing was great, the action was tight, the moments were cool, it really brought it back for halftime.

In terms of story, a lot happened off screen but it's not too much of a hamper because you get the gist that it's just trying to get the band back together (again). The characters are a bit even, we don't seem to have as many new characters but most of the old ones return, some get good treatment, some don't, it's a toss up. Even the villains I feel could've got a bit more with Kai Leng being introduced kind of late.

With the impending doom of everywhere, there comes some interesting choices you can make just off hand with random strangers to try to make them make peace rather than wasting what precious moments they have left, so you'll hear a lot of arguments that you can take a side on. Interesting dialogue too, someone asking for a refund and the clerk refusing, an immigration refusal, a wife leaving.

The Mako...I miss it. I get that it was complained about but now we have no vehicles, its a shame. That was some of the the best fun I've had with the games and is most of why I hold ME1 higher than the rest, it just seemed like something you'd do in space. The world setup is different too, in 2 you could go around and inspect systems and planets and find weird side missions by doing so and complete the index. Some had materials worth using for the ship. And you can look at these worlds but they might as well be ornaments. Outside of already set up side mission waypoints, the remaining ones serve no purpose. It's almost like they planned to include that system from 2 but ran out of time. Instead the reapers chase you if you scan an area, which is cool and makes sense in context but that's it. They catch you and you just start over, no battle, no cutscene, nothing.
As far as the DLC, it's not really DLC anymore because it's just part of the game with the remastered edition but if you were curious...

From Ashes just adds Javik and guns, stuff that was originally cut so worth it. Leviathan was kind of annoying but gives you more insight and explanation as to the Reapers and their origin rather than just shoving it all at the end, still some cool moments though. Omega was disappointing because it dragged on and on and was dark in little corridors, the story was weaker than it could've been but at least we had Aria...As I mentioned Citadel kind of became essential for me and the most worthy out of this list, really cool stuff that added naturally to the game. Even with these though, I spent about the same amount of time with it as the second one, but where I felt a lot of tedious stuff with ME2, I felt more mainline (aside from Omega) with this one. So same score but better than 2, lesser than 1. 3.5/5

Oh...that ending thing...so a lot of people don't like the ending and I can kind of see why but it's not really the worst ending or anything. As I mentioned, some inclusion of the DLC made the ending worthwhile so vanilla might seem salty. By this point, I was already satisfied with the game and really the ending is kind of bittersweet no matter which route you go. They all have similar cutscenes (or rather, paintings) just with different colors and meanings and stuff. I suppose Green is probably the happiest, Red probably being something you'd expect, Blue being a somewhat middle ground and Empty being more bittersweet than any of them. It's really only questionable because it tries to redefine the game for you at the very end. What do you fight for?

Making this purely gameplay for now

The complete experience is overhauled so that you're not exploring this big open area to find one little dungeon, instead it's set up so that you have "islands" and bridges to them so that you collect specific pieces to unlock the dungeon, bingo bongo, it's that simple. It may sound like a hassle but really, those ones are kind of the dungeon in themselves, you more or less just collect the treasure after that but then there are some regular dungeons that you just spawn in from the get-go, no key necessary (mainly the keywords that aren't main quests.)

The movement speed is much faster in comparison, it's almost like you have a speed charm on at all times, which for someone of my nature who gets dizzy easily, this is not in my favor but it becomes manageable and matches the size of the worlds. I do wish there were a few more movement options though-

Unfortunately it doesn't control very well…

The combat has proper combos and specials, if you thought it needed more flash, there you go. It still feels similar in nature with the hack and slash but you don't really do everything from the menu anymore, you can leave your party members to their own and treat them as you would Donald and Goofy from KH. You don't hear their battle quotes as much but that's because you hear those same six ear grating grunts and groans from Haseo, it gets old very very quickly.

But like said, the combat at its core is still similar to Kite's because he's an Adept Rogue but you get an extension later on that allows you to play a bit differently (more like BlackRose would) which is a big shift with going from fast paced small attacks to slow paced big attacks but I also feel like should've been done for variety, it's a toss up.

There's a morale bar, where doing things right such as taking care of your party members, using special attacks and so on and so far will start to manifest the bar to fill up, once it does, you get a team attack, normally a stat boost like a rage factor. Doing stuff like that can net you more exp and prizes after battles so rather than every enemy dropping a chest, they just give the crap straight to you. At the end of a dungeon/your leave, you'll get a ranking which tells you how efficient you collected everything, the better you do, the better prize.

You can block now which I don't normally use but hey, it's better than running around like an idiot hoping you don't get hit with the way the hitboxes were in the past games. Hubs are pretty large, to the point where there are even warps so that's quite handy. Even the dungeons themselves have warps that you can use both to get out at certain points and a rest if you need it, recovering your HP and SP, saving all your items.

With the concept that you were once a PKK, there will be instances where you run into a big blue circle in the middle of a field. This is a player battle which you can choose to intervene in and help to take out the PK. Man, did that climb right up my alley.

Now, difficulty. I said about how underneath the new skin, it still feels like IMOQ but a lot of it is dependent on difficulty. A lot of things from IMOQ return such as scrolls, fairy's orbs, trading, buying equipment and stuff I found essential to .hack beforehand. Now I'm not one to say that it should be loyal to the .hack games before it but I didn't even find myself using these things, I didn't need to. With some of the items, that was only good for dungeons which past a certain point is no longer the main quest, it's the Arena which items can't be used in and many of the players don't have anything to trade anyway. With IMOQ, you didn't have that luxury of choosing a difficulty and it just started throwing curveballs, causing you to exhaust everything at your disposal, I beat the final boss by the skin of my teeth. But this time you have some lead way even having an easy "story" type mode where you just kick back and knowing the reputation, I picked Normal but I prepared for a battle like I had in Infection and I ended up being ahead of the curve, I'd actually almost compare it to Kingdom Hearts 3's normal mode. On one hand, I want an easier experience than I had with Infection but at the same time, I think the dedication I put into that game put me into a corner because I knew those things and I didn't need anything like that anymore and nothing replaced it so it felt a bit empty. And I didn't skimp, I did all the side missions and stuff which actually ended up being pretty good because some featured characters that don't appear as much in the main story.

This game isn't without annoyances though like Chickie Dadas (yeah, that's what they're called) but having the Hungry Grass to compare it to from IMOQ makes everything seem like it's not worth complaining about. What's weird is that with Infection, I spent about 18 hours getting to level 30 and this one I spent less time and got to level 40, how does that work?

I think someone technically could play this without IMOQ. As far as story, there's a recap in the options if you want it but as far as gameplay goes, it certainly helped to have already played it because I would've been so lost towards the beginning. It was more just figuring where stuff was moved to and how it was updated for me. There's a wealth of information at your fingertips, from lore to instructions to worldbuilding and additional story content to a greater extent than the previous series, it can be a lot to chew on which can be overwhelming at first. And I was already familiar with how .hack works. That and you get a whole lot more out of the game (as if it isn't already vast enough) seeing all the references and connections. I certainly recommend it but at the same time, I understand the novelty of playing it without prior knowledge (as well as much better accessibility).

From an overall standpoint, it improves on almost everything from hack but I still feel it has more potential and will improve. What an ending though, ho boy! Everything leading up to it was meh but the ending got me hype for the next one. For now I'm going to give it a 2.5 out of 5 because of how average it felt for most of it but it definitely had it's moments and I said "for now" because I'd like to look at the bigger picture once I finish the final volume and anime, this was just an appetizer.

It seems appropriate to update the party system as Haseo grows more akin to working within a party instead of being a lone wolf. That includes the morale system. Not only is the duration starting to lengthen but you no longer have to wait for it to fill up to use it, you can use it pretty much whenever but the longer you wait, the longer it'll last. New weapon too, you're pretty much where you were when you were the Terror of Death which is really saying something. You can even switch weapons in battle albeit it's through the menu or special. But having a good relationship via email with your party helps because it unlocks new attacks. Because of these improvements, the gameplay is slowly shaping up to be really enjoyable at times. I did actually manage to crash it from button mashing though…

The Versus card game is open now which means you can collect cards to play in the form of some really cool art. Same with the forum which you can in turn make your wallpaper in the desktop (which was a feature from IMOQ but done in a different way). The bike turns out that it was bland on purpose last time so they added an upgrade system where you can buy parts and mix and match to make it run how YOU want (really you just buy the best parts but it markets as how you want).

So now we're properly into spoiler territory and with that we're properly into SAO now with the players being stuck within the game. You can no longer head to the desktop to check your email. And with that, Atoli can't speak, can only send mail. But here's where it gets tricky because that's not the game's plot, in fact, the whole scenario is over pretty early, it just introduces that possibility and what it could possibly mean as well as the consequences it created.

It started becoming clear to me how much of a reinvention/reimagining GU really is to IMOQ because it's using a lot of the same elements just differently, like the Data cores (instead of virus cores). Donald Duck even returns!

wait... But as far as structure, it also takes after the first volume taking place with a tournament…again. Nowhere near as long though. But just know that once you've set your difficulty, you've done it for all the vols so…yeah.

The side-quests aren't nearly as meaningful but I'd have to say that the overall story jumped to being pretty good, there are some lines in there where I was very well shocked at how impactful they were. The only real complaint I have about it is the villains and I got spoiled about them but the way it's done (so far) is pretty cheesy, but I imagine it will be expanded upon and will actually make sense later. But yeah, this makes the first .hack that I actually properly enjoyed, thoroughly and genuinely, there was always bits and pieces but this one finally seemed worth it.

REsident REvil 4 REmake REview

Attack of the games I've tried and didn't like then came back later to love.

I've played RE3 more times than I care to count because I had a lot of fun with it but fun doesn't always equal the perfect game, it has its flaws. I just run through it so much because it's easy and I've learned it, the actual game I gave a 6/10, all I ask is that this one beats that.

I don't know if I'm going to be the first person to say this but here are my honest thoughts…let me preface by saying this is the PS4 version. It ran fine, a few hitches but nothing unplayable, nothing intolerable, just small little stuff. Graphics are obviously downsized as the same with file size which I expected but judging from the PS5 footage I've seen, that mainly affects performance, the graphics remain similar enough.

When I first saw the trailers, the graphics looked obviously good, I was blown away with RE2 and I'm not a total graphic fidelity guy or anything, I still play old games but I can also appreciate a good graphics game as much as anyone and I'm sorry but that first chapter of the game is just bad. His hair glistens, which sounds pathetic to complain about but in a nighttime setting, especially that opening scene, it just doesn't make sense when Leon's hair lights up the room more than his flashlight. In the light, it looks real good but aside from the environment, it renders the photo mode almost pointless because Leon's face is so stock it's not even funny. It wouldn't be a problem because you're looking at his back anyway but photo mode allows it, so you see it. There aren't filters or poses either, maybe I was just spoiled by Horizon Zero Dawn. But that's not even all.

This game is a remake of something from 2005 and it reflects that, there are a lot of narrow linear passages to get from point A to point B, it feels like you're heading from town setting to town setting to wipe out waves of zombies. I know this was more action based than that of the previous entries but still, do you beat enemies or outrun them, do you save ammo or not? It's a gamble.

One of the things that turned me off initially from the 2005 version was that everything seemed very samey, like I was shooting these villagers that were copies of each other and they just kept reappearing. Now there are some zombies that you'll see copied but now it's not so glaringly obvious due to the upglow. But it can get really irritating hearing them say the same voice lines over and over, I missed when they didn't talk. But what that first chapter covers is when I sold the original game back, heck it's what they based the demo off of. When I played the RE2 and 3 remake demos, I was blown away but had I played this one, I might not have picked it up. But! It kind of gets better and better as it goes on so you're clear :)

There are certain parts where it hit that whimsy because I would be like "I'm actually doing this." I don't really wanna spoil those moments for you (if you don't know them already from the original) but even knowing some of them were coming, I was reminded of how cool some of the gameplay context moments were in Jedi Outcast and how rare it's been since then to feel that.

Leon is very reactive, whether it be his grunts and breathing or when he's hurt to when there's poop and flies and he waves his hands and puts his hands up to his face. There were some points that I knew what was going on just based on his reactions alone. I mean the controller itself is used quite effectively too with voices coming on it and such.

Leon's whole personality has shifted, he was a dork in the last game (RE2) but he's become hardened, something that I've always found the contrast of as a little too much, too uncomfortable for me but hearing his voice lines, he's still a dork at heart, just has a lot more going on and is better prepared for it…mostly. In RE2, he'd say "What the-" whenever he saw something unnatural like a zombie now he says it when he sees something common like a bodybag. I mean, what happened between 2 and 4 is really up to a few second recap so a whole game could've filled that period but whatever. If you get confused, apparently Darkside Chronicles has some of that information but you probably know that's not an easy one to find.

One of the things I enjoyed about RE3RE was that it had the quick dodge. Some people thought this mechanic was too broken because once you got a rhythm down, you could parry. Well you don't have the quick dodge this time (THANKS A LOT!) but you have an evade which is a quick time that appears whenever it feels like it. But you can also stealth kill if you have the knife and if they have a knife then you can parry that and I say if you have the knife because it now breaks and you can either repair it or find a new one but eventually it wasn't really a problem because I found them so frequently. You also have a melee which after getting a zombie stunned you can kick for a wide effect (hitting multiple targets) and or depending on the situation, strike them with your knife. It's especially helpful when they've hit the ground because you're not awkwardly standing over them to try and aim your reticle to make sure they stay down while they're rising up again, instead, you just give it a finishing move. But what's that? You have no room for a knife in your inventory because it's packed with grenades? Just use the item box. What's that? You can't store just anything? Mainly weapons? Well, that sucks. So it gives, it takes.

In fact, I feel like what I liked about RE3 wasn't really present here but what I disliked about RE3 wasn't really an issue here either, leaving room for new things to like, perhaps even more. With that said, there are parts reminiscent of RE3RE like how the Hospital plays out, having Jill out of commission and you play as Carlos to go around the place, getting key cards and such, running into pale heads, giving her a cure. That's basically done the same way with Ashley and Leon, it's not a tired trope because it's only happened once before as far as I know but that's the only pass I'll give it for that. This is also a much longer game than the previous ones so it's not as detrimental.

There are traps now, stuff to slow you down and hurt you just a little but enough that it may hurt more in the long run (not like poison but if a zombie gets you or something, you're down that much more) but you can eat chicken eggs now, so you're good! Speaking of zombies, they are indeed zombies but more like people with a spell put on them sort of. Necromanced or whatever. You can jump through windows, the world is bigger to explore but not so big that you're getting (totally) lost (I mentioned linear passages after all). This allows for more collectible opportunities.

Money, there's a money system which is obviously used for the merchant, this allows for challenges you can complete for dough, similar to that of the ones that are usually in the menu. Most of your weapons come from this but that's the thing, I feel like everything is a soft introduction and I in no way mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the best way. You're not forced to use the merchant if you don't want to but it's definitely helpful and you can still pick up some of the weapons and items here and there like any other game if you wanted.

There's a treasure system which you can collect stuff and then apply gems to make them more valuable to sell. It'd be cool if the treasures were collectibles in the menu and you in turn put gems in them to unlock the models and concept art they already have in there but still cool. Use that money to get upgrades and repairs and stuff.

It's split into chapters for whatever reason, which I don't really care for, it doesn't exactly hurt the experience but it does add to a series of other problems I had, making it feel like each chapter was something new but at the same time disjointing it overall. Sometimes like a tv show. Revelations did that as well. At one point I remember thinking "Did that happen in the actual game?" referring to the original, as if I wasn't already playing a game, it was kind of like an adaptation to me, where these scenes that I felt like I should know were being brought to a new screen kind of like HBO's The Last of Us. I feel like this was probably made for fans of the original. One thing I already know I prefer in the original is Ramon's design. He was a creepy little kid before, almost like a puppet but now he's just a little old man that acts like he's at the opera.

It ended up ranking about where I expected with me preferring RE2 just a little more for being a bit tighter around the edges but this game does improve on a lot from the ones previous, putting it above RE3 overall, we'll see how the memories of this game hold up though. I may even visit the original (is it that different?) now that it gave me interest. I was a little disappointed by that ending though. Not by the final boss or cutscenes but more that Ashley was pushed aside "We're a team, right?"

~Return of the Queen~

I've mentioned how I don't like being rushed or chased by things in video games, so I thought about skipping this one but then I heard that the EMMIs weren't as relentless as initially thought and EMMIs don't chase you the whole game, just narrow sections. I had played the demo when it came out but I wasn't very good at it but after playing Samus Returns. I wanted more. Fusion came and went. I wanted more of that too and this sort of combines the two so this was the obvious answer.

Really, if you liked Samus Returns then that prepares you for this and this just builds on that. It's a real treat and natural progression of the Metroid franchise. I've come to notice just how much this game was meaning to happen between being cancelled on the DS, having that stealth-like section at the end of Zero Mission and whatnot.

But this isn't really about stealth, you see, you have "muscle memory loss" but you're still powerful. But it just wouldn't be Metroid without a broken mechanic because we have the "crossfire bomb" which is an extension of the ball bomb, sporting a Bomberman type thing and then that's supposed to boost you past a stretch of pitfall blocks…except, you could've just given us the spider ball??? Or even use the new magnetic tracks in some way. And we have the power bomb to get rid of stuff all at once so I felt kind of dumb using the crossfire.

The map is back as well and you can even mark it, oh how I've missed the markers, it also does a better job at labeling that stuff, much more detailed.

Let's talk about EMMI though since they seem to be one of the main attractions used in marketing. Each one represents a different Aeion ability and color, you immediately know where an EMMI's territory is but you don't always know where the actual bot is, so trekking through these places is really just running blindly where ever you can then once you have the power to defeat it (which needs to be obtained and only lasts long enough to defeat one at a time) you can go back and properly explore that area.

One of the things I love most about some of the bosses in the series as a whole is when they're built up. This game has the most build-up to multiple bosses and that's through it's exquisite use of its backgrounds. Same with the movement, it's like if every jump in Mario was the long jump, so smooth.

Story is pretty strong, the ending is a bit strange though and by strange, I mean nothing out of the ordinary. Sakamoto said that this was the end of the five game arc and a new chapter would begin, which makes sense for the franchise since "Metroids" are technically extinct now but it's just strange to end it that way as "the end of an entire arc", there's a lot in there, I assure you but just not what I expected.

See You Next Mission.

Every now and then, I like to have a yearly tradition, normally taking place around Christmas. For a while, it was an Aladdin movie every year. Next round it was Hunchback. Next round, it was to read a Star Wars book. Last year I finished the Thrawn trilogy but I also started Donkey Kong Country. I've played the games sparingly and I wasn't really a fan but I always appreciated what they did for gaming. I couldn't say that I ever beat the game and thought maybe the first was different from the rest, so I finished it last year and thought it was good but nothing to write home about unless you were there when it released hence why there's no review.

This year, I decided to keep the tradition and play DKC2 and I've always known that this was everyone's favorite but I've always found it to be the hardest and what's the point when Donkey Kong isn't even in it? Well, I understand now.

Let's start with the setting. Pirates. An easy concept to grab from especially since we had themes of it in the original, King K even being on a pirate ship of his own but we take it to a whole new level. The beginning of the first game had it very simply put, the bananas are gone, go get them back. This one, Donkey Kong has been kidnapped…I did not know that, that explains it then. So he enlists the help of Dixie Kong, which I also know is a fan favorite but I never understood why. She is though. When you switch characters in DKC, it was usually through a cool high five, this one, Dixie kicks Diddy out of the way and says "It's my turn." (At least in my head she says that) She glides with her hair which you already know I have a thing for if you saw me talking about Conker. Her idle animations are blowing gum and drinking a juice box. She plays the guitar at the end of a level. I like Diddy's precision but I can't say I used him all that much in comparison.

The bosses are better this time around (though a few are fairly similar). Overall, it's the better DK game. So what's wrong with it? Why did I dislike it?

You can run. I learned this last year in the original but it didn't hit me until now that I didn't know that as a kid and would try making these sloped jumps with no luck or speed behind them, that's partially why it was so hard. But it's still hard, mind you, especially when you're playing legit with lives and stuff. There are instances where it just doesn't seem plausible to do some of these things reasonably like the ghost ropes or the King Zing Sting boss, they're a bit too precise and-

THIS STUPID! THIS FRICKIN STUPID SNAKE LEVEL WITH THE TOXIC WASTE COMING AFTER YOU IN A TIMED MANNER BUT YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR HIM TO JACK HIMSELF OFF TO JUMP HIGHER. I WAS YELLING AND SCREAMING "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!" AND MY PARENTS EVEN GOT CONCERNED "WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?" I WAS PREPARED TO GO OFF ON THEM GETTING IN MY WAY OF THE FIGHT BETWEEN ME AND…RATTLY. THEY MAKE HIM OUT TO BE A HERO BUT THIS GAME ISN'T DANTE'S INFERNO, IT'S ABOUT APES! I HOPE I NEVER SEE A SNAKE AGAIN. I DROPPED THIS GAME AND DIDN'T COME BACK WITH JUST A FEW LEVELS LEFT. GOOD RIDDANCE GREEN SLIME.