I don't have any complex opinions about this one, it's just simple fun. it's just solid and enjoyable. amazing music, enjoyable gameplay, and a decent story (for modern sonic standards a fantastic story) with dialogue that's actually good.

it has its flaws, and it's not always the most polished thing, but I don't really care. it's fun.

the game also has combat now, which, once again, is just fun. it's not super complex, but it's fun. yeah that's just my opinion on this game. it's fun. I can really feel for hardcore sonic fans that they finally have a good sonic game again.

also, like I briefly mentioned earlier but I just wanna give a special mention: the music is really really good.

pretty great, but it's no dark souls 3 or elden ring. I feel like that comparison is going to anger some people, but eh.

but before I start: whatever you do don't make a dex build, please don't play dex. I ignored the warnings, I shouldn't have ignored them, I should have just listened. you get like 4 viable options for weapons and it's a pain to grind upgrade materials.
DON'T PLAY DEX, THIS IS COMING FROM A DEX FAN

moving on.

the level design is where most of the difficulty lies for this one, the bosses are quite easy. which is fine of course, but it does kinda change the main focus compared to later games.

as for the quality of the level design, I'd say it's overall good, although the game does kinda suffer at times from a lack of checkpoints or shortcuts. the first level impressed me with its shortcuts, and by putting the boss right at the start and making the whole level about unlocking it.... but then a lot of the remaining game kindoff forgets what shortcuts are. I'm fine with them doing shortcuts in favour of checkpoints, but they should actually stick to that.

one thing I do like is the level themes: it's a lot of themes you don't really see back in later games, or atleast not done as well.
shrine of storms for example is this game's catacombs level, and it's much more unique and interesting than what later games do. same with tower of latria, being a dungeon level. the second half of tower of latria is also just really really cool and messed up.
stonefang tunnel is also something you don't really see much in later games, and when you do it's not as extensive as this.
valley of defilement is your usual poison swamp inhabited by poor people though, except this time, it's actually as bad as they say.

difficulty-wise, this game is fairly easy compared to later games. all of the bosses were very easy for me, but they were still enjoyable. the levels were also easier than later games, though they could still be tricky at times. difficulty isn't everything of course, just thought I'd mention.

I played the remake, but I'll give my impressions on both soundtracks:
remake: good, albeit a bit generic. some music fits better, some fits worse, some about equally well.
original: just not really my thing. I have a hard time really hearing the creepiness or negativity some have described, and it just kinda sounds awkward and so bad it's good to me. sorry. armoured spider and phalanx are a jam though.

I didn't expect to get nearly 40 hours out of this lol.

I had always seen celeste as a short game before playing it. like, one that you pick up for a challenge, and then put down after a few hours.

but then I found out I had to do some of the side content to play chapter 8. okay, I'll do that I thought. it took me a while, it was tough, but I really loved the challenging B-sides, and my enjoyment of the game grew.

after beating chapter 8, I went on to chapter 9. I expected to beat that, and be done with the game. then I found out I had to seemingly do every B-side, and then some.

so I started finishing all of them, and I liked the game more and more. I then heard that chapter 9 was apparently harder than the C-sides (which I didn't even know existed), and that they really prepare you for chapter 9. so, I knew at that point that I was gonna be doing those too.

when I first picked up this game, I never expected to do all of the side content. I thought that those would be too hard for me. but this game naturally encouraged me to do all of the side content, and that's very cool.

I love this game despite its flaws.

yeah, some of the female character designs are atrocious. the game does have a very slow start, it has some of the worst tutorials I've seen, and field skills can be annoying... but it's so good despite all that.

once the story gets going, it gets going. tons of emotional moments, some of the best villains I've seen, deep fun and interesting characters, it's just incredibly well written all around.

the music's some of the best ever too. the cutscene music, the area music, and all that amazing battle music... phenomenal soundtrack.

the battle system's really great too, building up elemental orbs to then obliterate the enemy is incredibly satisfying. the way it works unfortunately does result in you not really approaching different enemy encounters differently, but it's really enjoyable none the less.

incredible game with an incredible story. plenty of emotional moments and great scenes all throughout. though, I do think the story slows down a bit near the end, but it picks up again at the ending.

I do wish the villains had gotten a bit more screentime, they're for sure not as good as xenoblade 2's villains, but great none the less.

don't get me wrong though, the story's incredibly, and definitely with better pacing than 2, getting good much earlier.

the sidequests are easily the best in the series, and the exploration too, with plenty of optional areas to go through.

I think I prefer 2's combat, but this game's combat is still good. I do think it still has the issue that the way the combat works means you kindoff approach every encounter the same, but it's still enjoyable none the less, so I don't mind.

the massive amount of customisation is also great.

the soundtrack's fantastic as well. a lot of area themes this time around, which are generally a bit calmer than previous games. I think I might prefer 2's soundtrack, which has more battle themes which include more high energy stuff, and I think I might prefer cutscene and area music for that game too, but that doesn't take away from how amazing 3's soundtrack is, and I love some of 3's touches with the music too, like how the battle music changes as the bosses get low health.

I guess I keep saying that I prefer a bunch of things in 2, but like I said, that doesn't take away from 3's quality, and 3 is definitely more polished with a more consistent quality throughout, and some other strengths over 2 which I already mentioned.

such an amazing game. or I guess DLC. but eh, it's pretty much its own game.

the main aspect of course is its story, and its incredibly sad ending, that you know, from the start, is going to be sad. this is probably the most emotional I've gotten from a game.

and of course, the gameplay's real great too. xenoblade 2 just has very fun and satisfying combat. is this combat better? I'm not sure. it's a different twist on the same system, but both have small pros and cons over the other.

I expected the required sidequests to drag, but due to the quality of the sidequests, I actually quite liked that part of the game.

overall great game, but suffers from its level design being not that outstanding. most of its levels are very forgettable due to a lot of them not really having one gimmick or theme, each room just decides to do something else. the individual sections are of course well designed and enjoyable to go through, but the levels as a whole suffer for it.

like I said though, it's a great game. just a simple, enjoyable game. and of course, it paved the way for future kirby games, which is also very respectable.

this game has some of the most fun gameplay in any game I've played. that alone gives it this super high score tbh.

that, and also its fantastic level design, music and visuals.

formchanges are one of the best new additions, making keyblades more unique from each other and adding more unique playstyles that you can consistently activate during most fights.

the last couple bosses are also some of the best in the whole series (not counting re:mind, which has even better bosses)

the main aspect it "fails" on is story. that's not to say its story is awful or anything, but not much happens until the end, and it doesn't really introduce many of its own plot points, it just wraps everything up. it does wrap it up in a really great way though, and there's plenty of fantastic moments near the end.

the new gummi ship mechanics are also great. I do kinda miss the really cool segments from kh2, but what we got is great as well.

overall, probably my favourite kingdom hearts game, simply because it's the most fun to play.

for what it is, it's very good. but what it is isn't a lot.

you can only do so much with 3 hours. it was fun, but it's ultimately just kinda a demo for kingdom hearts 3.

there's some good story moments though, so that's nice. some of the bosses were also great.

and of course, it looks really great, both in pure graphics as well as just the aesthetics of it all.

honestly, I can't quite tell you why I feel so strongly about this game.

part of it is probably because I didn't spoil myself nearly as much on the final chapters of this game compared to other KH games. so, that ending, especially the blank points cutscene, it hit like an emotional freight train.

not to say other KH games didn't hit like emotional freight trains though. even having spoiled myself on other games, they still had hard hitting scenes. but this game's final scenes definitely left more of an impression.

as for the gameplay, that's the main part where I can't say why I rank it higher than KH1 or 2.

I mean, I kindoff can: command styles are super fun, especially blade charge and ghost drive. and aqua was definitely the most fun to play. even without the super overpowered magic she can get her hands on, the magic she gets is super fun to use. and can't forget those command styles.

but, is is better than KH2's combat? that I can't be sure of. probably not? maybe? idk.

does the game have problems? absolutely. it's grindy, you revisit the same areas multiple times (especially aqua got the short end of the stick in this regard), the bosses don't play to the game's strengths and often have that one attack that drags the fight down...

and I'm honestly glad I don't have to grind again in this game, and it's definitely not the first game I'll replay when I do replay these games...

but despite these flaws, I walked away from birth by sleep with even more positive feelings than KH1 or 2. so, I'm going by that feeling, and ranking it higher.

for me personally, I'd say I like it about equally as the first game.

the combat is better in this game, there's more great bosses, and I prefer the music and slightly prefer this game's story over the first.

that seems like it's weighing heavily in KH2's favour, and it admittedly is, but I just can't bring myself to rank it higher than the first (or lower). it just doesn't feel right. so, I've decided that I like it equally.

plus, the first game has some pros too, like better level design. also, I just kindoff... like something about that game's vibes more.

the first game was also harder. maybe it's just because I played on proud instead of critical, but still. there were some tough bosses for sure, but it's not like KH1 where I really had to learn them all.

don't get me wrong though, KH2 is amazing, and overall more fun than the first. probably a better game, but I like them both equally.

Before playing this, I thought people disliked this game because it was too gimmicky. (they probably do, but it's not why I dislike it)
turns out the real reason it sucks is because it's not gimmicky enough.

the combat has some great and cool ideas, but it mostly falls apart when you get access to a lot of high value cards, at which point you can ignore most mechanics for most combat encounters and basically buttonmash your way through, turning the game into a watered down version of the first game.

maybe some later bosses made it more interesting (in fact, the first couple bosses were great, when my cards were still low value. the game could have been good if more of it was like that), but that doesn't forgive 90% of combat encounters being uninteresting.

also, don't get me started on map cards. basically means you HAVE to grind to progress if you get unlucky, or used a map card you needed later without knowing.

all the worlds being from KH1 with the side stories in them also being almost copied from them doesn't help either.

the main story is great though (and important to the series), so just watch a cutscene compilation online.

super underrated, the game was fantastic, loved it almost the entire way through.

the combat's great and I like how gear and abilities can be customised, though the game lacks weapon variety, with each weapon type only having a few options, some of them being the exact same.

the bosses were great, and there's some really cool and creative ones in there. same for areas. music is also great.

enemy animations can sometimes be really wonky, but when they're hand animated, they're some beautiful animations.

(non specific spoilers ahead I guess)

I also like the ridiculously cryptic requirements for the secret boss, felt like a classic creepypasta.

only thing I really didn't like was the secret requirement for the ending, which can lock you out of the ending you want depending on player skill.