I have good memories of shooting JFK with my cousin.

That doesn't sound right.

I have good memories of shooting JFK in this game with my cousin.

Still doesn't sound right.

You get what I mean.

Three Houses was not what I had envisioned when I imagined Fire Emblem on Switch. Now this, this absolutely is and it does an incredible job. Instead of Three Houses, this one took notes from Fire Emblem Fates instead. Thankfully unlike that game and Three Houses this one only has one story, and since it's a Fire Emblem Anniversary game it's a simpler back to roots story. It's really really refreshing to be excited for a Fire Emblem game from announcement to release, feel like this is the one and it is. It's one of if not my favorite Fire Emblem game now.

The changes to the formula all work in the game's favor. Trading priests for Monks allows your healers to have additional utility they didn't before, be it either blocking or fists. While they aren't incredible options, they're still options I for sure got use out of in the early game. A whole new mechanic is the Break system which also came into play more often early on but was a very welcome addition to further emphasize the weapon triangle which otherwise tended to get ignored as things went on. And it still does but when it comes into play you feel it a lot more as it saves or screws you. There's a counter to this too with Knights not being breakable and these new mechanics are all little things that improve the game. You can even have all your friends pound a unit at once...or have them do it to you if you try to juggernaut, so that won't work here anymore. The best one is the bosses, where they have more than one healthbar so you can't just beat them with a single powerful attack, often times you have to coordinate your team to take them down. Bosses also often move which is unusual for Fire Emblem so you have to be on your guard. And then when you beat a map you get to walk around the map and it's like "This is where I just fought and it feels really cool especially if it's an Emblem Paralogue, like you're walking through history.

These incredible mechanics aren't the only thing, there's also the new characters and music that are great. The story is mostly serviceable with only a few parts I'd say are bad but nothing ever reaches Fates levels of bad writing at least. Oh what else to say I could go on all night about this one.

I suppose the flaws: The Somiel is a step up from the Monastery for sure but there's a lot of stuff here that either felt pointless like the fitness minigames or felt unneeded like fishing (even if that is also better than 3H). These only earn Bond Fragments for the in-game gacha which also felt pointless. The only downside in gameplay is the game throws reinforcements to push you to the boss but sometimes it feels absolutely relentless about it to where it gets a bit excessive. But you have 9 rewinds a chapter so all's fair in love and war I suppose.

I was surprised I let some units die this time and that I put thought into "are they worth the rewind/restart" and even realizing that sometimes the answer was no. Honestly, as I learn more about the metagame I'm honestly thinking about playing through Engage again sometime on Maddening and trying new units and classes. This game is that fun. If there's any Fire Emblem you wanna come back to or even try for the first time, it's this one.

Celine is the best by the way.

Hollow Knight is the most overrated game I have ever played.

Its first area leaves the worst first impression for a video game I have seen in a long ass time. There are no story elements just "go in :)" nor any elements while you are in there, and your movement options are limited to a slow walk, a jump, and an attack. The enemies are dull and uninteresting and a boss is a bigger version of the enemies. The level layout and textures are just as equally dull and uninteresting and it just feels like "standard cave level" For a first impression it should have looked at Super Metroid or Symphony's first few minutes, as they do something very important this game fails to do: Build intrigue. Hollow Knight's curiosity gets better when you get out of there thanks to the introduction of Hornet, something to pique my curiosity, but I was never on the edge of my seat wondering what'd happen next.

The story takes a much more backseat approach which may work for some, but it never got me to care about anything that was happening in the world. Having some hidden lore is good, but you should still present something upfront to provide a reason for the player to care about why they are going to the next area. I had no clue my ending was just the standard ending until I looked it up after because the game really has no interest in telling you anything, just read it yourself. Problem is, if I don't care at the start, why would I use my own free time to read the lore in hopes I would suddenly care? Hollow Knight fails to give much reasons to care. It does from time to time, revisiting the first area near the end and seeing it infected is peak environmental storytelling, but that's the exception rather than the norm.

Speaking of how the bosses in the first area are bigger versions of regular enemies, that's about half the bosses in the entire game! Special Shoutouts to the Flukemarm which is the laziest boss I have seen in eons: All it does it spawn enemies and nothing else! The bosses that aren't lazy are very well done, and special shoutouts to the Mantis Lords which are absolute masters of Boss Design. Unfortunately those top tier bosses are again the exception rather than the norm.

The map system is atrocious: You can eventually have a map once you find the cartographer in each area, but until then it will only mark where you've been. This is like most Metroidvanias, but unlike most Metroidvanias this map is much less detailed and it won't tell you if there are any places you haven't been (IE doorways or hidden paths) and worst of all: It won't mark any landmarks! You have to do that yourself! Which is more exploring, which would be fine, but...

The death system. I've even seen hardcore Hollow Knight fans describe just how bad of an idea this is. When you die, you lose about half your money, kinda like Shovel Knight. Doesn't sound bad, right? Well you don't JUST lose half your money, you ALSO lose half your meter. Much worse. ON TOP OF THAT, Hollow Knight isn't a platformer, so you're not just gonna walk into these things naturally on your way. No you can't go and explore somewhere else because that area may be a bit too hard or something, the game is practically putting a gun to your head telling you to go to that area again to get your stuff back, since if you die again the money's gone forever. And without half your meter, you're gonna have a much harder time going in any other direction. Why you would discourage your players from exploring in a Metroidvania is absolutely baffling to me, and I hope a sequel removes the meter loss or the death penalty altogether.

They have a bank you can store your money in to lessen that penalty, but there are two problems with the bank: 1. There's only one bank in the entire game across this massive massive map and 2. The bank is a scam and will rob you after depositing past a certain amount, so it's pointless in the first place. Why.

I like the Charm system but wish it was a little less limited. Same goes for weapon upgrades, but in both instances there is only one location for these things on the entire map (and there's no library card-like item where you can warp there) which is absurd. Shops should be more spread out, or at least there should be one shop type at a warp point which makes a lot of sense for store owners to do.

And that's not getting into the big spacious maps themselves: Until you get the run function, you're slowly walking across that fucker. Running isn't much faster either, so it won't help too much. Landmarks/fast travel points are too far away from one another so even with fast travel you'll still be doing minutes worth of backtracking. And like I mentioned before, that also means doing the same areas over and over on death!

Getting the Dreamweaver in the second half is just go back and backtrack the map for three boss fights. Some are in new areas but others you're mostly just re-exploring old areas. Sure Castlevania does something like this with the Vlad parts, but you have abilities that you didn't have the first time when they come up and you can get those as soon as you have the power if you want rather than waiting for a questline to open up. That's not the worst criticism though, a minor one.

Sorry I had to tear this game apart but Hollow Knight is by no means a perfect game (I don't even think it's a good one, just alright with lots of highs and lows) and I wish people would stop treating it like it's the best game ever made.

I also hope Silksong improves on Hollow Knight, whenever that comes out. Hollow Knight has potential but runs into a lot of bumps in the road that keep it from reaching, but Silksong can learn from Hollow Knight and improve.

For me, the Persona 5 burnout isn't so much of the amount of spin-offs, it's the stories of them. Like Strikers, this one focuses on rebelling against oppressing forces (this time in a new metaverse with places called Kingdoms) and standing up for what's right. Then you come up against an oppressive god-like being who says "no it's the will of the people they want my variation of being ruled under my thumb" and then you say no to that god-like being for the 5th time and it dies and then the credits roll. Normally I wouldn't talk about the true antagonist like that but if you're coming from the Persona 5 spin-off era you knew it was coming and it's far from a surprise at this point. (Don't worry, there are no specific story spoilers in this review though).

The story of presents the idea of the collateral damage of these rebellions and stopping suppressors, this game's take on it, but once again the protagonists are never actually challenged or questioned about their actions and it's more focused on....Like Yoshizawa, Hikari, and Sophia before, this game's focus is on one of it's new characters. No, not Erina, but someone else introduced early on, Toshiro. He's enjoyable. While of the spin-off and sequel gang I connected with Hikari the most on a personal level, Toshiro's story can be quite engaging when it wants to be. I can't go too into detail about it, but he feels realized and understandable, admirable by the end even while holding a solid dynamic to the rest of the group (even if it's similar to Zenkichi's at times). The thieves themselves are mostly just kinda there in the story, especially Joker. You select choices but he rarely factors into anything, especially with Toshiro. The other thieves and how they relate to his experiences with their own are better, but outside that they just repeat any 1 of their 3 jokes. Morgana is not a cat, Makoto and Haru are scary, Futaba is a gamer, Yusuke is poor, etc etc. So while they have their select moments, they're mostly the peanut gallery and usually all of them will have to chime in on a conversation which can slow things down.

But I've got to give the gameplay props, it does make you think a little...in the puzzle-structured missions anyways that have you use what you have to clear an objective in a set way, highlighting one of the game's mechanics. It's a great way to learn and wrap your brain around it. The triangle attack is also great, encouraging the positioning of your units for maximum damage and efficiency, especially if you can make a triangle that spans the whole map. There's also the One More system this game, the key factor to clearing maps quickly and efficiently since you can go farther and take out more. Building up a chain of kills is also pretty satisfying. Being able to clear missions this quickly, however, leads to another problem: The gameplay to story ratio feels out of balance for most of the game - For every 5-10 minutes of Tactical gameplay, you'll get about 15-25 minutes of story. As soon as I begin getting into the strategy mood, it's already over and back to the VN. It gets better near the end where the plot is resolved and you're just off to punch a god again at least.

I always like when Persona does different artstyles and this one being different from the Q style (though similar) is nice. I also liked the CG artwork that really brings out the best of this particular style. I also enjoyed certain CGs and interfaces taking inspiration from Soviet propaganda, it helps this one stand out just a bit more. The music is also solid and I respect them holding back from throwing any arrangements of songs from P5 in this game, as it takes away from that P5 fatigue people are feeling.

If your stomach has room for one more Persona 5 story, this game will offer some interesting but very easy tactical gameplay that may fill you up for a bit.

See you in Persona 5 X everybody!

Pokemon Clover is the best Pokemon game ever, and managed to recapture a long lost magic that the series had and I'm dead serious when I say this. I love this game so much I have the World Record (and only) NG+ speedrun of it, and will be improving that record again later on.

While the game's starting town seems to be funny joke game like "haha your professor is Danny DeVito and your starters are a condom, arab terrorist, and Grasshole)" it quickly shows what depths it's capable of in regards to its parodic creature designs, combat depth, and difficulty.

I'll talk about the humor first: The time capsule of internet humor is pretty funny and while I'm unsure how well the humor will age in the short term, it will be nostalgic soon enough. It's offensive, but offensive in the South Park method where it makes fun of anyone and everyone and doesn't pick sides: all sides are portrayed as selfish, idiotic morons with no one in the right. You have Social Justice Warriors that go off at the slightest unintended microaggression and Nazis that are portrayed as idiodic morons disliking things just because they are different. It has a jim crow black pers...Dark Type holding a watermelon going SHEEET that is also the ideal HM slave while also having a fat pig police officer fighting type that isn't even that good to use. The mons cover all regards and I'd say only the Sadrog->PepeREE line aged poorly but that has more to do with the Pepe meme than the mon based on it.

I suppose this is a good transition to talk about the mons and their designs, both visually and functionally. Visually due to how they were compiled (the Fochun dex was roughly the first 151 designs they recieved with slight tweaks and alterations) but still have so much thought with what they have. Some like Haremit and Anaconduke could be real Pokemon and while others like Sprucifix and Unjoy would never fly, they fit right in a parody Pokemon game incredibly well. There are veryfew bad designs but they do exist, like DIEZNUTS, but it's forgiven by the surplus of good ones. They even had the right mind to drop Pokfusa before 1.0 and replace it with the much more fitting Militant. Functionally they all are exactly as they seem, and with quality and balance in mind too: Militant for example is a Deoxys lite, while there are tons of fantastic mons like Marleyzard that are designed to use Toke, a fire type Shell Smash, to set up and sweep. Their abilities also add to their jokes, like Marleyzard's White Smoke that also aids it in combat. With two exceptions that are getting nerfed in the near future (lol), the in-game balance is on point and nothing feels free while nothing feels truly unfair either.

This leads to the main campaign which if played blind really recaptured that feeling of playing Pokemon for the first time, only on an adult level: I saw a creature I didn't know of before, and had no clue what it was, what it did, how it played, until I dealt with it enough or tried it on my team for myself. The enemies weren't slouches either: You aren't just going to beat Brock because you chose the non-arab starter. You can't spam items either: The game has a hard limit of 4 item uses per battle. On the other hand, one-use items (like Berries and Sashes) will come back at the end of major battles, so there's no need to hold back on using those for big fights allowing you as many tries as you need. And you will need them, as battles only get more complex from there, Snoop and Freddie being notable hurdles in the Gym department while the rivals and Carlito also caught me off guard a couple of times. Your rival also changes depending on your gender, as does their strategy: Viol the male rival plays a very meta style strategy, while Keksandra plays like a massive shitposter who wants to mess around more rather than win. It adds that extra bit of replayability. The Elite Four (and especially the champion) also add their own surprises to shove your shit in and make you rethink your strategies.

And it doesn't end there! Pokemon Clover has a massive post-game: First there's the top of the Fochun region, followed up with 5 more gyms in the Ebin Islands with much tougher trainers using more intense strategies! This world is simply massive and with a whole new national dex, rightfully so! They're no slouch here either, filled with a life and sidequests of their own, like buying a house that can eventually lead to in my opinion the most powerful mon, Adesign! There are also plenty of bonus bosses including Adolf Hitler, Chris-Chan, some literal who named Moot, and more! The only bad part is Polany, the weakest area of the game, which is not only unfunny (just like the board it's based on!) but is also redundant with Outkast Island already existing and worst of all being unfinished. But with that out of the way, Mt. Moot is its final dungeon, and that's it.

And now I should talk about the story, so stop reading and play it right now if you wanna avoid: The first part up till the Champion is relatively standard Kanto fare with the evil team. The boss is obvious but it wasn't made out to be a big mystery. It's in the postgame with Neo Team Karma that reveals that the team you faced at first was merely a front so they could do their real misdeeds in the shadows. I actually like this as it's a small shake-up. However, the real boss has no build up and kinda dumps his entire character and motive in the final 10 minutes. Vyglass is just like you, only he hated his life despite having a wife and kid and retreated further and further into his imaginary world he created with Clovenix. It's only after beating the shit out of him, his mechs, and his mons that he apologizes for sperging out and goes back to his reality, leaving anything else in Fochun in your hands. It does its job but if Vyglass was built up better or shown once he would have been better, but he still leaves an impression just because he uses the Master Ball on the Legendary like we do and then proceeds to try and kill you with a mech.

I have no good segway into the music but they're all bangers and it's the best Pokemon soundtrack. The remixes like Darude's Sandstorm, POMF POMF POMF, Megalovania...are all translated beautifully to the GBA sound font, while the original compositions like Viol's theme, Champion's theme, Demiwaifu, Karma Admin, Neo Team Karma, Vyglass theme, they're all so good!

Long story short Pokemon Clover is the best Pokemon game and likely always will be so playing it should be required for any Pokemon fan regardless of your views and beliefs I don't care about those just play Clover.

On one hand (the one holding the pencil) this game is GORGEOUS. Not only some of the best graphics on the Sega Genesis, but some of the best graphics in a 2D game I've seen! It really does feel like a playable comic book, and the animations don't cheap out either as this is some of the most fluid 16-bit movement you'll get, on par with the Genesis Aladdin's animations easily. There's also humorous speechbubbles and you even see your playtime when you pause.

Unfortunately on the other hand (the one holding the controller) the gameplay is still fine but the combat feels mashy despite the wide range of skills Sketch has access to. But maybe that's just me being bad. What isn't me being bad is the game's obtuseness with what you're supposed to do at times. A lot of the solutions involve using your rat friend but the game won't tell you that beforehand, and just knowing about Rat isn't enough in some situations, one I remember was a switch for a lava platform that was so confusing I just damage boosted past the puzzle.

I think if Comix Zone ironed out its gameplay a bit, it would have been far more successful, but as-is it's simply a hidden solid title to play from the Sega Genesis library, and a recommend for anyone who loves sprite animations and gorgeous sprite work in general.