Pseudoregalia has pretty good movement huh? Too bad that's about the most it has going for it! While Pseudoregalia is a decently fun ride, most of that time is spent meandering through environments that are just similar enough to each other to make it easy to get lost, but just distinct enough where you wouldn't call it same-y.

Combat is very bland and boring, you start the game with a three-strike combo with very wonky hitboxes and you end the game with the exact same thing. Your dodge barely functions as a dodge since it's just a slide (I cannot tell if it even has I-frames or not) and the enemy variety is so sparse that avoiding combat is more fun than being in it.

To be fair though, the game's graphical style has quite a bit of charm. And the music also adds to make a much richer experience. In general, I am a complete sucker for the PS1-PS2 style of graphics and models. Pseudoregalia fits in this and definitely jumps out as a game that feels like it was released over twenty years ago when in reality it's a 2023 baby. That's a good thing, I like that.

Now, the movement. I think it's pretty good. There's a lot of hidden tech and as you continue to increase your arsenal it builds into a system that you weave quite naturally and feels very good. The air kick is very interesting and unique when it comes to movement systems, giving you the ability to kick off walls a limited amount of times and into the direction that you are trying to move towards. It gives the power of wall jump without letting it be infinite and making it feel more like a natural part of the kit. The ground pound jump, long jump, basically all the things you can think of from Mario 64 are here plus more. The best part is it all comes without the baggage of Mario 64's clunk! Moving Sybil around without any of the upgrades feels smooth and player-friendly. However, if you don't get those upgrades, it definitely feels like there is something missing. Without the map that was recently added, it is very easy to get lost and filtered before reaching your first movement ability. I know I did at first! But if you can get past that initial chunk where you feel pretty lacking, the movement does become something pretty special. Unfortunately, I think the movement would be better in a different kind of game, but I digress.

Lastly, the story. In stereotypical metroidvania fashion, the story is very sparse and you have to look for it. Unfortunately, Pseudoregalia is pretty short so the story has no time to flourish, and none of the flavor text really does much to give you much of a story. All the story you get is after you reach the final area of the game, where you can somewhat gleam hints at a story, but not much else. In that regard, it makes the journey of exploring the castle kind of forgettable. There isn't really a motivator to keep going or keep doing things outside of the idea that you are playing a game and games are fun. It doesn't bother me when a game's story is complicated or secretive, but it does bother me when there is basically no story at all. Unless you want your gameplay to speak for itself, most games need some main motivator, and Pseudoregalia just does not have one.

Pseudoregalia is a fun but jumbled mess. Most of the game feels clambered together without a good enough rhyme or reason. I understand the idea was to make a dreamy, aetheric atmosphere, but I think it fundamentally failed at hitting those notes when I struggled to discern the differences between each area. Nothing felt coherent outside of the movement, which while really good, could've been better in another game. Though for a solo dev, this is quite impressive, so I still look forward to what they do next.

Once again, I find myself trapped in the writer’s room. I must’ve not fit all the pieces together. Something must not have been said correctly. I have to keep trying, keep writing, find my way out of here. Let’s start a new draft.

Alan Wake II is the kind of game that happens when you take developers at the peak of their expertise and give them the budget to create a unique, Triple-A quality action game. Except, except… no, that’s not right. Let’s try that again.

Alan Wake II is an artist’s nightmare. A developer commentary on art and the act of creating it. A work that faces the player in the eye and asks them how they wish to perceive the art they interact with. A game that gives as many different takes on art as there is art in the game. But, wait no…I’m still missing something… it’s not enough. One more time.

Alan Wake II is a mixed media project that combines books, games, film, music, and more. It’s an eclectic piece that uses its multi-faceted variety of displays to create an enriching experience that asks you to keep paying attention. Every little nook and cranny, filled with detail that if missed, could blow the door wide open…. No, NO, NO! This still isn’t right! I have to start further back, before any of this. Before I woke up.


It’s not a lake. It’s an ocean.


To unravel the sheer scope of Alan Wake II, one must be willing to grasp the idea that Alan Wake II is all of these things and more all at once. A mixed media project, an artist's nightmare, a Triple-A action game. I can think of three moments in this game that poignantly blew my mind out the back of my skull like a cannon, all from sheer awe. Alan Wake II is a Resident Evil-Metal Gear Solid-Undertale-like. It exists in a space where it is all of these games and none of these games at the same time. I... honestly, I really don't know if I can find the words to describe just how unique and bizarre and interesting and fun this game is.

Let's start with the combat. Alan Wake II is a survival horror game with a specific focus on "light-based combat". Limited resources, limited inventory space, and a focus on making your shit count are the staples of combat. The light is what makes it a little more unique. To make an enemy vulnerable to damage, you must first shine a light on them of extreme strength. The base method is using your flashlight which has a limited amount of charges per battery, four to start. After you've made them vulnerable you can begin to attack, but if you stay disengaged for long enough or hide yourself within a light source, the enemies may regain this "darkness" to hide from your damage. And those light sources make you completely invisible to enemies, but most are temporary meaning you can't abuse them to take out enemies. And even in the permanent light of safe rooms, the enemies can't be taken out. This focus on light is a huge part of the game, both gameplay-wise and narratively. However, it also presents one of my two gripes, most of the time it is simply better to avoid enemies rather than fighting them not because you lack ammo, but batteries. Light is used for much more than just making enemies temporarily vulnerable, it can also open up pathways, or destroy projectiles. It's a necessity to stay alive and to continue moving forward. To some this may be an interesting conundrum to face, very typical survival horror decision-making. Yet, in my experience, it took out the decision-making entirely. My playstyle entirely depended on whether or not the game had decided to give me enough batteries to engage or not. However, that didn't stop the combat at its best moments from providing genuine thrills comparable to the best in the genre. Some arenas for fighting weren't perfect, and clarity was a bit of an issue at times for projectiles, but otherwise....well, let's just say the Old Gods of Asgard would be proud.

Alan Wake II is split into two different sections divided by the two separate protagonists: Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. Our dual protagonists are separated by their differing realities, those being the real world and the Dark Place. After playing through the respective prologues you gain access to switch between the two freely. A good way of playing through the game is to play a chapter then switch and do the other person's chapter over and over, starting with Alan. ...but, you could do any other order you want. Unfortunately, I think that's not necessarily for the best. Allowing the player to choose their pacing sounds smart in theory, but it creates more problems than anything since you don't know in advance just how long a chapter is, what kind of sections take place in it, etc. Some chapters are finishable within 30 minutes while others last up to 3 hours. You simply can't predict which it will be, and theoretically you could also just focus on one character or the other, royally breaking the pace of the story. The worst part is that I wouldn't even blame you if you DID choose to play one character over the other! The distinct difference in locals between the characters offers unique thrills to each, but one is definitely more inherently interesting.

The Dark Place is a fascinating place. In both story and game design, it is a vastly more unique setting from its real world counterpart. Non-Euclidean geometry, self-referential art design, and consistent fourth wall breaking to the point you might question if there was a fifth wall. The majority of the game's meta-commentary on the act of creating art happens here. That on top of the writing for most of the commentary from Alan Wake is written like it was written for the book that he is currently writing to get out of the Dark Place. The Dark Place and its existence, Alan Wake's place there, and how the world bends around you are all very convoluted, confusing, and difficult to understand. That's what makes it so much more rewarding to participate in. On top of this, the Dark Place contains a majority of the live-action cutscenes in the game. These live-action segments are incredibly interesting from both a game perspective and a story perspective. Not only do they continue to push the boundaries between character, player, and creator, but they push the surrealism even higher than before. All of this culminates into an experience that leads one wanting, no, craving more of this dreamscape.

Each character has a specific mechanic tied to them that relates to progression and both are subverting in an interesting way narratively later on. For Saga, she has her "Mind Place" where as she talks to people and sees clues, she can fit the pieces together in her head and discover the truth around matters. This narratively allows the player an easy way to check the flow of the plot without being overbearing AND giving details about where we are going without coming off as obtrusive. On the other hand, Alan has the "Writer's Room", where he can transform areas of the Dark Place to match with certain themes that he finds throughout his journey. This feeds back into the ever-changing distressfully dream-like structure of the Dark Place and makes progressing with Alan simple and understandable. If you find a new theme, you know to try and attach it to the different locations to see what fits. And if you haven't found all the locations, you know you have to better utilize your themes. This combined with Alan's lamp that can give and take light sources creates an interesting exploration feedback loop that builds up the mystique while slowly letting you piece together the puzzle that is the environment you reside in. I won't say how all of these mechanics fit together in the grand scheme narratively but note that how they manage it feels incredibly earned and something I adore. I love taking gameplay mechanics and making them feel real within the world, rather than made-up gamey bullshit. Alan Wake manages to play into this gamey bullshit and makes such a GAMEY game that no matter how much stuff is happening and no matter how crazy it is...it just feels right.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
This leads to my three big moments. Two of those moments are ones that just about everyone raves about already. The Dark Ocean Summoning and the Herald of Darkness. Yet, more poignant than these two grandiose moments, is one quiet moment near the end of Alan's half of the game. A moment that completely caught me off-guard and remains one of my favorite moments in a game full of surprising and incredibly interesting moments. A game full of meta-commentary on creating art and the struggles of it, nothing sticks out more than after you make it through the theater. You spend a lot of time exploring this area and progressing through it like all the others, and after you finish it, you begin to walk out and continue progressing. Except, on the theater screen...it begins to play a short film. It starts with a small excerpt in Finnish, then the title: Nightless Nights. For the next fifteen minutes, I sat there just... entranced. Something about that experience. I, sitting on my couch, playing a game as Alan Wake, who stood in a movie theater, watching a short film where the creative director of the game I was playing played a fictional character in the fictional story of the writer Alan Wake. The complete surreality of both the experience and the short film itself... was truly magical. I felt like I was looking directly into the vision of the developer, the vision for this art, the vision of the vision. It's not a lake, it's an ocean.

Alan Wake II is truly a one-of-a-kind interactive experience. It's simultaneously one of the most creepy horror games I have played, a fascinating deep dive into what it's like to try and make something for people and the aftermath if it succeeds, and an exceptionally creative art project involving the full minds of so many incredibly talented people. It's a game that if you love games, love writing, love art, love creating things, you will get so much out of. Alan Wake II is as much a game about a game as it is a movie about a narrative, a song about a character, a game about a book. Yet, even still I don't know if I found the right words to properly describe it. Is this truly the best ending I could find? Let's try this again.

It's not a loop, it's a spiral.

I find the game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney,
A STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

Apollo Justice or AJ for short, is the fourth game in the Ace Attorney franchise and the first game to feature a protagonist that isn't Phoenix. As a step away from the interconnected and woven-together plotline of the first trilogy, AJ seems to try and be a starting point for new players as well as a new story to try and capture the hearts of said players. And while this goal is mostly achieved, the blemishes of the larger sprawling narrative rear their head enough that it can be frustrating to call this a "fresh start". For a good fresh start, one would expect a decent spread of cases with a clear and concise difficulty curve, alongside a new mechanic or two, something to keep long-time players invested in this "new direction". Unfortunately, that new mechanic is so poorly designed within both the context of the story and gameplay that it almost beats the Psyche-Locks from JFA in just how much it sucks. AJ does a lot right, and a lot wrong, keeping the series from besting its previous highs or even coming close to matching them. AA1 this is not, and T&T this isn't. Yet even with all that said, AJ has some stand-out moments making it worthwhile to play and experience.

As per usual first case fashion, we are introduced to the court system via a tutorial case which gets the player acquainted with the game. It wasn't until T&T that for the first time, these first cases actually mattered to the main plot, but luckily it wasn't the only one either. AJ keeps up and starts a newly born tradition of giving the player breadcrumbs of the overarching story during the tutorial case to get them hooked and invested. Now, considering the fact that AJ intends to be a "fresh start" for the franchise, it isn't a wonder that many characters from the previous games are forgotten in favor of new ones. In fact, the whole plot of Apollo Justice takes place seven years after the trilogy. So, now with this tutorial, we the players are being introduced to all of the new faces as well as any prospective returning ones. AJ uses the tutorial to introduce us to the protagonist of the game, Apollo Justice. This is Apollo's first case, so in typical Ace Attorney fashion, this justifies giving an explanation of the mechanics of the Court Record, Cross-Examining witnesses, and Presenting Evidence. However, unlike previous games, you don't have to actually get taught again! They finally learned after three games that maybe not everyone is new to the series! So for the first time, a returning player can skip the tutorial nonsense and get straight into the story and I can really appreciate it. And boy oh boy, that story sure is something.

However, more important than the story is that new mechanic. Let's talk about Perceiving. In case 2, Apollo suddenly learns he can focus really hard on the statement that a witness is making and perceive it in slow-motion. What this does is slow down the witness giving a statement in their testimony and allow the player to look at the witness for any small, normally imperceivable nervous ticks. This ranges from quite noticeable comically large gulps of nervousness to the tiniest fucking twitching imaginable in places that Apollo physically cannot see normally. Here is the problem with this. Most of the stuff that was pulled off in the previous titles that seemed unexplainably bullshit happened out of the court. The court was where facts, logic, and evidence shine brightest. And even the systems that employed bullshit such as the Psyche-locks of JFA still required evidence to prove their bullshit! What AJ gets wrong with the Perceive system is taking the agency and cold hard truth out of the player's defined grasp. Ace Attorney is defined by its gameplay experience being dictated by the same core principles regardless of which facet of the game you currently embody. Whether you are in court or out, the same actions will lead you to continue the story and the case at large. But perceiving doesn't fucking do that! For a good portion of the game you are handheld on being able to perceive on statements where there is something to perceive. Then once you are in the perceiving state, you must look around at the witness for some unknowable sign that they are lying and point it out when it shows up as they are saying the lie itself. The problem with this is that before you bring up the perceive menu, the game makes it physically impossible to catch this shit! The animations that play in the perceive vision do not exist under the confines of the normal testimony gameplay. So if you can't naturally see it, but the game only lets you choose specific statements does that make it fine? Of fucking course not. After a certain point, the game takes the gloves off and now only certain testimonies have the ability to perceive something. The issue with this is that now I know have to perceive something in this testimony, removing any sort of confusion or misdirection that could be placed within the writing itself and instead placing it in a wild goose chase unconnected from any semblance of real puzzle-solving. Ohhh, but it gets worse. So not only do specific testimonies have perceivabilty, and the things that you can perceive are genuinely invisible to the player normally and even to Apollo, but also the actual diegetic reasoning for the system breaks apart the court system en fucking tirely. When you correctly perceive a nervous habit, Apollo breaks the court system and says "Ah ah ah fucker, you bozo, you absolutely fucking nimrod. You thought you could hide your nervousness from the great Apollo Justice, gumfuck? Well, I can see it, you are lying FUCKER." And then for whatever reason, the rest of the courtroom just accepts this?! Rarely, if ever, does the player need to present any actual evidence to verify or back up their claim on this. The real, genuine court proceedings at this moment are a secondary act to Apollo's mystical powers of vision. Ok, now with this, surely that's all of the problems, right? No, of course not. This is the smoking gun of the whole system. You never perceive outside of court. That may sound like a minor problem, but trust me, it's the biggest yet. The two things that I have touted in each and every review that I have made on the Ace Attorney series are Player-Character Immersion and the Perfect Gameplay Cohesion. Perceiving is the system that cracks both of these eggs at once. The player and character physically can no longer intertwine perfectly with their thoughts and actions because Apollo has powers we do not have and can see things we cannot. Through this power, Apollo cracks the law in half and bends courts to his will in a method so fourth-wall breaking we might as well say he has reached the fifth-wall. But, more so than that, the gameplay cohesion is split. In Ace Attorney, the two halves are Investigating and Trials. However, at its core, the fundamental mechanics of talking and evidence reign supreme REGARDLESS of which part of the game you are currently engaging with. However, you never once perceive someone lying outside of court. Not a single time. This boldly forces a new mechanic that shows up distinctly only in one of the two gameplay types that along with every other issue it has, does not fit in with the rest of the game. Perceiving is a step in the wrong direction, and it's this game's biggest flaw without a doubt.

Coming off of that is the best change that AJ makes, fixing the health system. In JFA, Ace Attorney introduced the Psyche-lock system, and with it, they broke the perfect synergy that the health system had with AA1. Now, the health was designed in a way where it would only fully restore after every case was finished, making any mistakes in specific parts of the case a permanent blemish making it that much harder in court. While the supposed remedy was with the same system that caused it to break in the first place, it made the courtroom-exclusive mistakes a problem in the case at large, turning players from good samaritans into save-scumming freaks. Apollo Justice on the other hand, just about fixed this! Just like AA1, mistakes cannot happen outside of the courtroom, keeping the gameplay of investigations precise and unique from the courtroom counterpart. And, just like before, mistakes refill between parts of a case, making each trial segment have more structural integrity from a gameplay-first perspective. There is one part of the game where this isn't the case, and where mistakes return to outside of the courtroom, and while that segment should indeed be put down for it, the mistakes do not carry over to the next court segment making it self-contained. This is a great thing and almost fixes the Psyche-lock problem, though not entirely.

Here is where things get a little...varied. Difficulty is pretty hard to judge in AJ. Even the tutorial case is more difficult this time around. While the overall difficulty of the game falls around AA1 level, most cases are about AA1 case 4 in difficulty. Never does the game push to case 5 levels of tough, though I can't necessarily call that a bad thing. The difficulty stays pretty consistent throughout the game, rather than having a more well-defined curve. A lot of that difficulty comes from a much larger player-character disconnect than from previous titles, but also just some weird out-of-the-box thought puzzles that simply don't make sense under normal logic. Questions are brought up occasionally that really throw the balance all over the place rather than a smooth ride. It's weird, and never really hits a true sweet spot at any point. And speaking of AA1 case 5, let's talk about characters. While JFA was very bad when it came to most of the characters, the main cast was pretty distinct and well put-together. T&T had Godot which was a large step up from JFA, and in general, T&T had a lot of pretty well-written and unique characters. Well-written enough for me to basically not mention it at all in my review. AJ...falls in a pretty weird spot comparatively. Apollo Justice is not nearly as interesting a protagonist as Phoenix Wright is, just flat out. But to his credit, stepping into Wright's shoes is even harder when he is in the fucking game. Wright is easily the most interesting and best character without a doubt. That's a big problem when you are trying to promote an almost entirely new cast! Trucy is the new Maya and she is certainly...a Maya-like character. I'm sure with some more time Trucy can become a pretty good character, but Maya takes the cake from personability and characterization coming from the story of even just AA1. But the combined weight of the trilogy makes it impossible to beat Maya. Klavier is the new prosecutor and man...he just isn't that great. I really wanted to like him but it feels like his role is more of a spectator than a court combatant. Compared to Godot and Edgeworth, Klavier just isn't interesting. He doesn't have a personality that is all that enjoyable to engage with, and he mostly just spends his time patting Apollo's back so he can find the right answer. Very little time is spent trying to get in Apollo's way which leaves me...conflicted. As a final note, a couple of characters come from AA1 case 5. It's pretty cool to see the grown-up version of Ema Skye as the detective of the game and she is a pretty cool character! But, each time they reference AA1 case 5, it slowly dawns on you that the devs wanted to push players who never saw case 5 (Japanese players who got the original Gyakuten Saiban on GBA) to go and play that.

Speaking of case 5, let's talk about Apollo Justice's game-solve case. Case 4. Man... What a letdown. Here's a quick rundown of why. Leading up to case 4, you solve three cases that feel very unharmonious in nature while in the background the game shouts at you that all will be explained in due time. And then, finally, in case 4, all is explained. Yet, somehow, there is a lot of build-up towards the final conclusions and final solving of the whole game that just falls flat. Some pieces of the puzzle are genuinely thrown out during the rush to the conclusion that I was left baffled. This game obviously, once again, attempts the AA1 case 5 pants-pissage, but without any of the fanfare and elegance that even JFA tried to have. The thing about a game-solve case is that the player should have questions sparingly, but never should these questions be shouted at them. AJ makes a big blunder by constantly wagging its finger, stating "Ah ah, not yet, this a piece of a much larger puzzle you have yet to solve". The reason this is a problem is that when the player finally comes to these conclusions, they don't feel justified or earned. They feel forced. But worse than that, is that the actual elements that define each case don't feel like they connect in any meaningful way to actually game-solve. Story-wise, the puzzle pieces are put together, though not very elegantly. Gameplay-wise? I can't believe that Shu Takumi wrote this. The elements don't add up and somehow the game manages to come to a conclusion that both feels undeserved and unfulfilling. With no spoilers, I can say confidently that Apollo Justice misses the mark to confidently piss my pants AND to conclude its very own self-contained storyline.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is not a bad game, but it is a large step in the wrong direction. Whether it's poorly crafted systems, unbalanced difficulty, or a rushed ending, Apollo Justice misses the mark on what should have been a great new beginning for Ace Attorney. While I can confidently say that much of the gameplay and style of previous titles is here, the new stuff can't compare, and that is partially its very own fault. I wanted to praise this game more, and while I don't think it falls to the depths that JFA did, it's all the more unpleasurable for giving me an ultimately unsatisfying experience. Hopefully, the next Ace Attorney can correct the mistakes that this one made, because if not, a dark path lies ahead for this series.

Portal Revolution is probably the best Portal mod out there, and while I commend the effort, it is a bit disappointing in a couple of areas. Puzzles were pretty easy and simple all around, even if they were decently fun. The new mechanics didn't get enough time in the spotlight to feel fully utilized. And the story, while kinda fun, ends pretty abruptly with no fanfare. Other than all of that, the overall pacing was great and all the environments (while still very Portal 2) were kept unique and integrated in the Portal lore leading to a very "Portal 3" feeling game. If you've played Portal 2, give this a shot for a couple of hours of fun. For the great price of free, it deserves it.

Lies of P is so good, that it ascends from being just a soulslike to a bonafide Souls title itself. From the rich atmosphere, incredible combat, fantastic bosses, and a richly thematic story, Lies of P stays at such a consistent high that it outpaces even the likes of FromSoftware's works. Interspersed in between all of these great things are systems and ideas that make every player's unique playthrough have just enough individuality to brew interest in multiple playthroughs, while staying true to the Souls way of a communal experience in gameplay. In fact, out of my entire playthrough, I only have two pieces of criticism which isn't much!

First, let's talk about the vertical slice. Lies of P gives the player an opening choice from three non-specific archetypes. Strength, Dexterity, and Balanced. From a Souls perspective, this opening choice is quite ambiguous and even better doesn't lock a player into a specific kind of build. Each choice has some small differences in stats as well as weapons, but the opening choice is simply a taste test in the vast buffet of the game's length. If it wasn't obvious, this is fantastic. My only minor remark is that I just wish there was a level-one class, but I digress. Combat is presented like so: a light attack, heavy attack, block, and a legion arm on the four triggers. A dodge is on the Circle/B button, and Fable Arts are attached to Triangle/Y. Like every other Souls game, actions carry weight having both wind-ups and wind-downs on every action. Inputting an action also locks the player into committing to it, even allowing a player to buffer these inputs into one another during the other action's movement. Dodges have invincibility frames allowing one to dodge inside of a hurtbox produced by an enemy, but the dodge's i-frames are in the middle of the animation rather than the whole thing, akin to a regular attack. In this situation, combat becomes a weaving of dodges and attacks where one has to consider the weight of each action thoughtfully and carefully. However, Lies of P also offers another way to deal with oncoming damage with blocking and perfect blocking. When the play holds a block, they will block the attack but take chip damage. This chip damage can be healed back via attacking an enemy, however, if an enemy hits you during the process, the remaining chip damage plus the additional damage will be lost. This system is very akin to Bloodborne's own vampiric heal system but unlike that game, it is only in the case of regular blocks. But if you are truly skilled, you can time the block button to be within a handful of frames before an attack lands to perfect block it. A perfect block builds stagger and comes with no chip damage, but the drawback is how tight the timing is. After enough perfect blocks and attacks on an enemy, an invisible stagger gauge will fill allowing for a Fatal attack. To proc a Fatal, the player must perform a fully charged heavy attack which will stun the enemy allowing for massive damage. Depending on the enemy, you can also perform a Fatal by backstabbing (this can only be performed on smaller, more humanoid enemies). After doing enough attacks, the player will build up Fable, a resource that can be spent on Fable Attacks. The three kinds of Fable Attacks are powerful attacks that build stagger, guard or parry-based moves that build stagger, and passives like increased attack damage or special types of damage. But now that the player has done a lot of damage, the durability of their weapon is low, so they must refresh their durability mid-fight with the Grinder. If the durability gets too low, attacks won't be as effective and will deal less damage overall. And eventually, the weapon can even break, which is REALLY bad. All of these pieces make up a combat system that is intricately diverse and special in its own way already, but there are still more pieces to this combat puzzle.

The opening train station teaches the fundamental level design that the player will continue to see throughout the game. Progressing through a bunch of enemies in various corridors and open areas until finding a shortcut back to safety or another stargazer(bonfire). Sometimes to progress, however, the player must defeat a difficult enemy that holds either a key or just straight-up auto unlocks the next area. Usually, reaching these enemies is easy and they are close to either shortcuts or stargazers to give the player an easier time learning and defeating these more challenging foes. The level design in this regard is pretty forgiving to a new player, but also unfortunately quite samey. This level progression does not change throughout the entire game, which can lead to most levels functionally feeling quite similar even when the art direction of each location is very distinct. This is one of my few criticisms of the game. I will say that while the approach is generally pretty fun, the repetition of such might cause some yawns here and there, even when the actual parts themselves have unique ideas. The benefits of such a design though are that for every section that most would consider a challenge, you are given easy access to every single time. This includes difficult enemies, mini-bosses, and of course, regular bosses. Boss run-ups are a thing of the past, which is entirely helpful since as Souls games have gotten bigger and better, bosses have continued to get an upgrade. And Lies of P is no different...

Bosses are the biggest strength in Lies of P. There is so much juicy, fantastic design present that each one feels destined for larger dissection and analysis. But for this review, I'll keep it brief. The bosses here are if you took the best of Dark Souls III, Elden Ring, and Sekiro, mashed them all together, and spruced it up with the distinct, dark, Lies of P flair. For one, no bosses have input-reading! I shouldn't have to explain that this is fucking incredible. Going into a tough-as-nails fight but still being given room to breathe and learn is just as important as making something cool with lots of spectacle. Elden Ring forgot this, having many fights read when you try and heal to actively punish you. Lies of P chooses to keep things fair, giving ample time to breathe, but just as much pressure to keep things interesting. After you chug through a certain portion of the game, bosses begin to have second health bars like Elden Ring as well. And in most scenarios, they are way better designed too! Most second phases are designed to be simply an extension of the first phase, rather than an entirely new fight to learn. This allows a player to have a good chance at the second phase without beating them up and taking their lunch money before they even learn about the smallest thing. And again, this doesn't stop the fights from being difficult, if anything, it presses the player to improve even more to have a fighting chance against some really crazy fights. And the thing I think is most important about the boss design compared to Elden Ring, is bosses are designed to be doable with ANYTHING. You got a really heavy weapon you want to use? That works. How about a super perfect block build? Even better. You want to just dodge all attacks and take potshots when you can? Of fucking COURSE you can! Each and every boss aside from ONE is designed in a manner where everything works and is more than capable of winning. That one boss is the Green Monster of the Swamp btw. That is my second criticism of the game. Just that boss. I'm serious. The arena is poor for the kind of fight it is, many attacks are designed around specific strategies, and the second phase feels like a different fight entirely in a bad way. And compared to every other boss in the game? It does stick out as the one outlier of poop. AND I WILL TAKE IT! Having only one boss that sucks versus many mediocre fights is the definition of consistency! All of these fights are seriously kickass and put themselves in some of my favorites in all of the Souls series! And I haven't talked about how much I like the unblock/undodgeable attack system yet! Certain attacks on bosses (and even regular enemies) are unblockable and undodgeable, meaning the only way to deal with them is to either perfect guard or run the hell away. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't totally be a fan of this since it incentivizes changing your strategy for one kind of attack (which Swamp man does), but because this game is great, every single one of these attacks has either massive wind-ups or easy and unique tells to make learning when they are coming incredibly easy. It's just...AHH, IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD MAN! And as a last aside, the hitboxes are attacks on all bosses is so fair that it puts every goddamn fight in every Souls game to shame. It's almost too accurate at times, I swear...

A Soulslike is nothing without variety, and Lies of P has got you covered. There are three somewhat distinct kinds of enemies: Puppets, Humans, and Carcasses. Each type of enemy has very distinct behaviors and patterns, but what makes progression through Lies of P interesting is how much crossover the three types end up having. Throughout the game, you will experience puppets, half-puppet/half-carcasses, regular carcasses, hell sometimes you get a weird in-between mix of like 30/70 puppet and carcass. All the enemies have unique aspects that make each one an interesting challenge, but more than that, the variety presents a sliding scale of differing combat experiences. Since each type requires different kinds of strategies, the sliding scale changes each new area into a brand-new amalgamation of weird and strange new enemy types to try and figure out. It is absolutely wonderful. Especially since the later you get, the more the crossover ends up as a mix, leading to enemies that are more puppet and carcass than the sum would lead you to believe allowing for an even deeper diversity. If I had to pick one that shows up a little too infrequently it would of course be Humans. Rarely does the player get a chance to brawl with any until the very last few hours, which is a shame since they were already showing some unique qualities.

When it comes to Souls, the story is usually very subdued, offering very little to the player unless you choose to dive deep into item descriptions and small lore tidbits. However, regardless of all the smaller, richer world details, most of the story and ideas presented are thematic rather than concrete plot stuff. Unlike Souls, Lies of P chooses to tell a rather forward story with plot details and the like but still harnesses the power of thematic undertones in the whole. Themes of humanity, consciousness, religion, filial relations, death, etc. Really heavy topics that I am in no way able to dissect well, but can at the very least understand and grasp in a way that leaves some resounding emotional moments. Really, if I can get that out of your thematically rich game, you've already won. The more concrete details of the plot are pretty simple and surface-level, but easier to understand compared to a Souls title. The game ends up as a much darker and more sinister version of the Pinocchio fable, with Pinocchio having to stop the source of the puppets' outrage, as well as the petrification disease. Both of these are slowly wiping away humanity from the map, all the while dastardly figures stand in the background plotting all of the events. Unfortunately, any more would enter spoiler-territory, so just know that I quite like the story and how it is presented, especially due to the Humanity system. The Humanity system is what allows the player to interact and take the story into their own hands with each choice. By performing various actions, such as listening to music, being nice to people and puppets, as well as lying, Pinocchio slowly becomes more and more human. Lying of course is against the puppet code, making Pinocchio unique in his own way. Throughout the game, the player is given the option in various conversations to either tell the truth or lie. It is up to the player to decide whether or not they wish to do either and depending on the scenario, each choice isn't exactly an easy one to make. Much like being human, a simple lie or truth isn't always black and white, leading to a distinct and lovely way of player expression through narrative cohesion in gameplay.

And boy oh boy, that gameplay. It only expands after the initial slice into a goddamn masterpiece. For every normal weapon you receive, you obtain a handle and a blade. After a certain point, you can mix and match blades and handles to create entirely new weapons. Each blade determines the weapon type as well as the amount of base damage associated with the weapon, and the kinds of damage it can do best. The handle is the base moveset of the weapon alongside the stat scaling. On top of this, each blade and handle has associated Fable Arts, meaning you can mix and match those as well. This system breathes so much life into the base Souls combat, allowing a player to experiment as much as they want to find the kind of weapon that would fit them as a player. I mean hell, you can even adjust the scaling on the handles if you want to have even more customizability to your combat experience! This alongside the stat system which has trimmed all the fat leaving only six equally important stats, leads to gameplay asking and encouraging unique playstyles, experimentation, and most importantly FUN! Add on top of this the Legion Arm system which gives the player a Sekiro-esque prosthetic arm that requires no external resources. Each unique Legion Arm adds just enough to give the player even more interesting choices in and out of battle, with upgrades attached to each arm (that you can remove at any time), and a magic-like MP bar to incentivize using them during combat. There is so much freedom in this combat system, yet nothing is ever broken or overpowered, and vice-versa nothing ever feels underpowered or shitty. An immaculate balance of so many intricate and detailed pieces leading to unadulterated enjoyment. It is fucking incredible.

And yet, Lies of P doesn't stop at just having incredible gameplay, because my god does the art direction go crazy. As previously discussed, enemies have a wide variety of looks due to the differing types, but that goes into the world as well. For the most part, each part of the world is very interesting and unique. Some parts fall into what I perceive as the "Resident Evil 4 Village" aesthetic but overall the towns, factories, castles, and chapels were all pretty visually fun. However as I said a lot of areas suffer from the repetitive design, so at times it is hard to recall what makes an area special aside from its art direction. Now, the game's general art direction, that deserves lots of praise. The dark and lonely atmosphere of a post-disaster "London" clashes with the abundance of mechanical puppets in a beautifully rich portrait-esque world. Admittedly, I probably can't find any more special words or synonyms for "nice looking" so just take my word that the game looks really good. And sounds good too, I forgot to mention that the soundscape is incredible.

Alright, tiniest little thing before I wrap this up. Two Dragons Sword, my beloved. This sword takes the juicy gameplay from a 10 to an 11 with the parry charged heavy. Completely demolishes the game for an experienced player, but has just enough risk to compensate for all that power. I LOVE IT.

Lies of P is the best parts of the Souls franchise combined with the classical tale of Pinocchio. With gameplay at the forefront of design, leading to a player-experimentation focus with fair yet brutally challenging bosses. A story that is quite possibly the easiest to follow in a Souls game without losing out on heavy theming. And all of it wrapped in a bow by some of the best Art and Sound of this generation. It isn't an exaggeration to say that Lies of P beats FromSoft at its own genre. No matter what these devs do next, from DLC to a new game, I will follow. They deserve my money.

Lunacid feels like a game that doesn't exist. With the cosmic horror/dark fantasy-inspired environments, Playstation 1 graphical style, and haunting but sometimes slamming music, Lunacid oozes a style out of this world. Every second I spent exploring the vast and rich depths of the Great Well, I absolutely LOVED IT. There are some minor caveats with the experience, and depending on your level of competency/insanity, a couple of things might reduce the impact of the world. To me, however, Lunacid is a lightning-in-a-bottle experience BECAUSE of its flaws, not in spite of them.

The game begins with our body being dropped into the Great Well, apparently for being a thief, before we are given our character creation menu. Everything besides the class is superfluous and is only there to help ground the player within the world, which I can vibe with. There are nine classes, all of which have different starting stats and some even come with special effects or events attached to them. The stats are Strength, Defense, Speed, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Resistance. Strength affects melee damage as well as max HP. Defense affects how much a player can guard before a block is broken...also max HP. Speed is max run speed. Dexterity is jump height and ranged damage. Intelligence is max MP, spell damage, and spell cast time. And finally, Resistance is how long status effects take to wear off. As you play, the player will gain XP from killing enemies and each level gives a couple of skill points that can be allocated into any of the stats. Other than Resistance, all other stats were pretty useful and fun to build around. While most other games have simple number changes, the ability to increase your jump height and run speed is not only integral to play but also gives the player an incredibly tangible difference to play with from the start to the end of the game. On top of that, the added benefits compound, letting the player access hidden areas or routes in previously explored places giving a new sense of wonder and intrigue. Beyond just flat stat increases, the game has three different types of weapons you can obtain: Melee, Ranged, and Magic. Melee is the most abundant of the three, in my whole playthrough I found very few ranged items and barely any real useful spells. That's not to say that ranged or magic is useless or unusable though, each piece of the puzzle was crafted pretty well and flows seamlessly in the combat experience, it's just a shame that most of the useful stuff outside of regular melee is found so late unless you seriously search for it.

That combat experience is done through two slots for melee/ranged, two magic ring slots, and up to five types of quick items. Melee/ranged attacks can be charged up to deal more damage or be more accurate in the ranged's case. On the other hand, spells take time to cast, requiring you to hold down the corresponding key for a certain spell slot until it is ready to activate and be used. Only one quick item can be in hand at a time, rotating in a set of five when you so choose. On top of all of this, spells and regular attacks can have elemental properties such as Normal, Fire, Ice, Poison, Light, Dark, and Blood. Most melee/ranged deal normal damage, but depending on the enemy that won't be effective so you'll need other types of elemental damages as you move through the game. Very luckily, the routing through the world has you stumbling upon elemental weaponry pretty close to when you need it or during the section it is needed. On the other side, enemies can deal different kinds of status effects, namely Poison, Bleeding, Burning, Curse, Blind, Slow, Mana Drain, and even XP Drain. So all of this sounds really good and fun, right? Well, that's where the first real issue comes in depending on who you are. Combat is really slow. It's the kind of slow that is nigh essential to the gameplay experience but also so deeply embedded in the core feel that getting rid of it would change the game entirely. But I can't outright say that the game doesn't feel somewhat sluggish to play when fighting enemies. It does feel janky, and it does feel weird. The jank affects your attacks, both normal and magic, as well as most enemies whose attacks and hitboxes are bizarre. And the blocking system is the cherry on top. When you press block, you enter a blocking state where if hit enough times, your block is broken and you take damage. Seems simple enough, but it gets a little weird when trying to actively utilize it in combat, especially against bosses. At times, it really just doesn't work very well, whether that's because attacks go right through the guard or because you are hit through the guard with status effects. The whole thing is a weird amalgamated mess of percentages and systems that jank right into the already somewhat janky combat.

The really juicy part of Lunacid is not in its combat though, if the game was just the combat, it wouldn't be nearly as good. Exploration is the bread and butter of this experience and Lunacid does so much to make it feel as rewarding and just downright interesting as possible. Every area is completely unique from one another, leading to a vast world full of different kinds of vibes, but even still nothing feels out of place as it flows wonderfully from area to area. Even at the times when the game is actively trying to get you lost (and boy, does it try at times), that feeling of being lost in the dark or in a dangerous land keeps you on your toes and makes the actual exploring really fun. From hidden walls to hidden loot, the world is hostile and doesn't give handouts, but that makes it so much more engaging to try and find your way around the at times labyrinthine-level design. Which might I add, is wonderfully structured in all areas. No stone was left unfilled in this adventure, making each new visit to a prior location just as potentially rewarding as the first. When combined with the unique and downright confusing puzzle design, it can lead to incredibly lengthy personal journeys spent delving into depths unexplored and vast stretches of seemingly empty voids to find solutions so unexpected yet intuitive I simply can't help but want another. But to be fair, the puzzles are another one of the said caveats in the design. Again, completely integral to the core, but many puzzles go from confusing to downright despair-inducing when the search for the solution ravels ever onward for potential hours on end. I found not too much issue with the puzzles at hand, but I can very easily see someone getting lost and confused over a puzzle mechanic that was not once taught to the player, yet expected to be understood. I wholeheartedly recommend trying to beat the game without a guide, but keep one close by if you find a certain puzzle to be unfortunately too unorthodox.

Lastly, I just wanna GUSH over the atmosphere of Lunacid. I already made it pretty clear before but it has a rich and vibrant style oozing from a game that feels unreal. Each corner of the Great Well feels like it stumbled out of a piece of concept art for some other grand RPG that I would have never seen otherwise. I'd pick out some personal favorites, but that would be like choosing a favorite kid when each unique environment has its own interesting flavor of cosmic fantasy terror. Combined with a soundtrack that feels half ripped from a Silent Hill game and half ripped from a "PSX Jungle/Breakcore/Lo-Fi Beats" video, I can't help but find this eclectic mish-mash of differing styles to do an incredible job accentuating each area's personalized flavor that much more. Rather than gameplay or story, this is one game that you simply have to experience for its masterful artistry and beautifully haunting music.

Speaking of story, there is a little to chew on, but like many FromSoft-inspired pies, it's light at first glance, but heavy in sub-text and hidden away actual text. I found the characters to be pretty charming and fun, especially in a world so desperately cruel feeling. And while the conclusion felt a little on the rushed side, the narrative at least gives enough puzzle pieces to the average player to make a picture that they can take with them forever onward. I really can't say much else, the narrative here was enjoyable but I am not a lore-master. Also, lots of parallels to Dark Souls...Obviously. Take of that what you will.

Lunacid is a game so unbelievably conceited that it was designed to exactly craft such a specific experience that every piece of its flawed puzzle was on purpose. I LOVE IT. Without being concerned about whether or not a certain piece could or could not be improved or changed, it instead serves the greater goal of giving a game that is wholly unique, inherently interesting, and completely unreal. From the janky combat to the over-the-top puzzles, the flaws are about as necessary to the core as the incredible world design and utterly impeccable art direction. Lunacid is not a perfect game, but all the better for it. Go play it, and get an unforgettable gaming experience that will persist with you until you wake up. Go forth Dreamer, seeketh the dreamscape.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva has the beginnings of a good rhythm game, but has some hiccups here and there that bring the experience down a whole lot. The game has a fantastic core that is both well-designed and very fun. However, getting to really delve into the core requires way too much effort and quite literally the credits roll before you can enjoy your richer depth. The game is designed as a love letter to Hatsune Miku and her fans, leading to many extra features and functions specifically for fan service, all of which are great. But because of such a great plethora of fan service for Miku, the other Vocaloids are barely present and so little was done to give them anything in this title.

In Project Diva, there are three levels of difficulty on each chart: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Each difficulty changes the amount of buttons required and the overall complexity of the chart itself. Easy features one button, Medium has two, and Hard requires all four main buttons. Those buttons are X, Circle, Triangle, and Square. Outside of those four buttons, no other buttons are required or possible to use during play. The rhythm element is presented like this: an outline for a note will appear on the screen along with a clock hand that turns to the pace of the song. The note corresponds to one of the four buttons which will begin to fly in from off-screen to meet up with the note outline. During this travel time, the clock hand will turn exactly 360 degrees clockwise, at which point the outline and note will exactly match. Once said note and the outline overlap, you press the corresponding button to clear said note from the screen, the better the timing, the better the score. The differing timings that you can press lead to different rhythm-based results. A Cool or Fine are the only two that increase the player's score and continue a combo. A Safe does not contribute to combo nor increase score, but you don't lose health from hitting one. A Bad or a Miss will cause the player to lose health, losing all of your health means you fail the song and have to start over. Depending on how well you do during a song there are three different grades you can get. A Standard is for a pass that is significantly shit for lack of a better word. A Great is for hitting a majority of notes with Cools and Fines but not quite a Perfect run. And a Perfect, which means hitting every single note with a Cool or a Fine. Or at least, in theory, that's how it should work, but the difference between a Standard and a Great is actually based on the player's ending score.

This is the first big issue with Project Diva, under normal circumstances being score-based for grading wouldn't make a difference unless the game had some sort of combo-based scoring. Which under normal circumstances, it doesn't. Scoring is primarily based on the player's accuracy. However, this all goes out the window with the game's strangest addition: Chance Time. Chance Time appears in every single song and for only that period of the song does the game change to a combo-scoring-based system, where the more consecutive notes you hit with a combo, the higher the score count for each note, capping out at 5000 per note. This SUCKS. Every run of a song ends up being mindless nothing until the Chance Time where you have to be as precise as possible if you want a Great rating. This means you could be pretty damn shit before Chance Time and recover everything too. There's also the problem that the moment Chance Time begins you can no longer see what your note accuracy is. Somehow this made it through!? You see, each note you hit is given the accuracy of during play, but only in the bottom right corner of the screen, completely away from the gameplay. That's already an issue in of itself, but once Chance Time starts, an overlay appears not letting the player see the accuracy, their health, or their score. Why the fuck was this done? I wish I knew...

Unfortunately, that isn't the only issue, but this next one has some layers to unpack. To unlock a song, you must first beat the previous song on the list (with minor exceptions). But when you get a song, you only have access to the Easy and Normal versions of said songs. To unlock Hard difficulty on a song you must beat the song on Normal at least once. So if you want access to all of the songs, you have to beat all of the songs on Normal first. Then this unlocks all of the hard versions of said songs with it. That doesn't sound bad at first, but remember that Normal only uses two of the four buttons during play. Without being able to touch Hard difficulty, the player is forced to play a significantly less interesting version of the game they could be playing. While the charting between Normal and Hard is relatively similar, they aren't the same, so not only is the difficulty reduced, but so is the overall button complexity. For someone entirely new, this might not seem that big a deal, but when you can only hit buttons with a single thumb and there are exactly two buttons to choose from, the game is not nearly as fun as it could be. I sorely wish I could be doing something with my other hand or maybe even other fingers but I really can't.

Before getting to the last bad thing, let's talk about something good: Chart complexity. Project Diva has a pretty decent selection of charts all with their own unique quirks and identities. This coupled with the game's innate unique rhythm experience leads to a match made in heaven. Notes can fly in on top of each other, from opposite directions, all around if they so please. The speed at which the notes travel can be heavily decreased or increased to match the chosen pace of the song. The note outlines can be placed literally anywhere on the screen, including on top of other note outlines. Hell, some charts even begin at a slower pace and then change midway through the chart. The possibilities are staggering and it leads to a mountain of fun to be had regardless of whether or not you like the song which is usually the biggest issue in a rhythm game.

Now, lastly, the lack of diversity. Hatsune Miku is just about the only singer in this game. Now this would've been more understandable if not for the fact that there do indeed exist optional outfits you can unlock that are the models of different Vocaloids. Kagamin Rin and Len, Megurine Luka, Kaito, Meiko, Yowana Haku, and Akita Neru. Out of these characters, two have two songs each, both of which are literally repeats of existing songs. The exact same chart, PV, and model movement, just a different singer. And to unlock these optional different voiced charts (which are counted as different songs mind you) you have to beat the original chart multiple times over. Three times to be exact. This seriously sucks because it clearly shows that this is simply a Miku game. I would be remiss to not mention that, yes, DLC did release after that came with new tracks specifically based on the other Vocaloids, but those aren't in the base game so, not in my house. If they wanted to include them later as completely DLC instead of having the models in-game locked behind arbitrary requirements with a paltry showing of songs to listen to from them, then that would've made more sense. What we have currently is just stupid.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva is right on the cusp of being a great rhythm game, but this title makes major mistakes that take the experience way down. Gameplay is incredibly fun, and all of the nods to the fans are fantastic, but it just needs more time in the oven. With a little finetuning and maybe some parts completely removed, this little rhythm game could hit it real big.

Gravity Circuit is so Mega Man, that at times I wonder whether or not the game would be fun or interesting if I hadn't played a Mega Man game before. The game is consistently enjoyable, with a robust and tight moveset/combat system and level/boss design that feels completely ripped out of a Mega Man title...So...if it is so Mega Man, then what does the game necessarily bring that's unique in its own right? Well, that's one of my only real issues, it doesn't. Basically, everything down to the core is Mega Man through and through, some parts even being flat-out ripped straight from one with no changes. Hell, the game even rips the ENTIRE highway and highway boss from fucking Mighty No. 9! That's insane! It's better here than in MN9 but like still...really?

But let's start off with that gameplay dissection. The player has a melee attack with built-in unique directional attacks. Attacks have predetermined combo strings with a minor amount of depth on their own but not enough to be satisfied alone. Alongside the melee is a short-ranged attack called the Hookshot, which also allows the player to attach to walls and ceilings much like the namesake comes from. The Hookshot can also grab items and enemies to hold and on button release, throw into other enemies and objects for massive damage. You can only pick up an enemy if it has died. However, once you kill an enemy all the base combat fades away in turn for grab, throw, grab, repeat. Instant kill on all enemies the throw hits. But if you don't wanna use throws and instead want better base melee, the burst gauge is where things get a little interesting. You have up to four unique burst moves equipped corresponding to Neutral, Up, Down, and Left/Right specifically. Each move is a kind of mini super move with some i-frames and big damage locked behind one burst gauge pip. To fill the burst gauge you have to get burst energy from enemies, which is only given after they die, unless you are using the passive effect system. Flat out, the burst gauge should just fill on attack regardless of any required passive effect. The system complements the base combat to allow genuine personality but only when the player can ebb and flow in burst attacks at will. Without it, it becomes a continuous wailfest that sadly feels a little dull. It doesn't help that most of the time you really don't wanna use certain directional attacks because they have long wind-ups for no damage increase. Other than that though, the burst system is surprisingly robust, albeit most moves, and good ones especially are locked behind the different Circuits. One burst technique straight up breaks the combat system...yet feels depressingly built around it. We'll get to that later.

After combat, the next important part of a Mega Man-like, especially one with X and Zero DNA, is the movement feel. Luckily, Gravity Circuit has seriously fluid movement with some minor issues that can easily be avoided. Besides the basic left/right and jump movement, the player can wall jump infinitely on the same wall, as well as get a large jump when jumping away from said wall. The player can also slide which oddly enough has a specified duration that gets shorter the more times you have to slide consecutively. It's not really an issue but I think it would've made more sense if the slide continued through a slide tunnel if the player could not stand up. And lastly, there is a run button. The base movement is about the same as the movement speed of X from Mega Man X, which isn't all that slow. However, in this game, they wanted to crank the game speed up to match the much faster and punchy combat with a run button. The issue with the run button is that you pretty much should NEVER stop holding it down. There is basically no scenario in the entire game where it isn't expected that you are holding run. This is a problem I have with other run button-based platformers as well, but the problem is definitely exacerbated here. Luckily as stated prior, the fix is something they added in the options menu to invert the run button into a walk button. This should've been the default, no contest. On top of that, another function that isn't bound at first is an upwards-facing hookshot button, akin to the Super Metroid aim-up button. Using the hookshot for the hookshot-based platforming later in the game is NOT FUN if you do not use this function. Again, should've been the default.

While playing the game, the player occasionally garners a currency (that I could not name if you put a gun to my head) that can be used to purchase burst moves and passive effect chips. The passive effect chips also require a secondary collectible in the form of savable bots in levels but I have no qualms with those so I won't talk further on em. In general, I think there is a little bit too much of a focus on the currency during levels, and thusly in the shop functionality at all. The main reward for nearly all play during a level is money, which is still not enough to get things depending on your progress in the game/stages. Personally, I believe a much better system would instead keep the bot system for passives, and change to a much cooler and much rarer bolt collectible system found within levels for techniques. Scrap the money entirely as it's superfluous and doesn't necessarily contribute to the overall quality of the systems present. On that note, let's talk passives. The player can equip up to three and they vary wildly in effects, from increasing player range on melee, faster attacks, to the aforementioned gain burst energy on enemy hit. In general, I like the system! It once again is another layer of letting prospective players choose how they want to engage in combat uniquely which is almost always a good thing. The only issues are presented when you stack specific effects to wildly change the difficulty of combat. The burst effects especially can stack for a disgustingly nasty combo that can garner the player tons of burst energy that can not only heal the player but allow them to perform their actual burst moves. This compounds with the broken burst technique to decimate any shred of legitimacy in the combat experience, leaving a hollow husk in its wake.

This technique is a mid-combat heal. That may not sound like much, but when other passives stack with it, it can quickly change the combat from a unique Action Platformer with challenging bosses, to a needless spam of attacks to deal damage and still reward yourself with health back. There is very little risk with this strategy and that goes for the entire game after it is used. Perhaps luckily, almost the entire game can be done absolutely perfectly without said moves and is designed around NOT having it. That is...except for the final boss. The final boss is almost great, but the final phase fucks it up. In the final phase, the boss begins spawning enemies so that the player may gain a burst meter to destroy the fuck out of it. Or at least that's the intended reason for the random enemies. Unfortunately, the enemies still can launch attacks at you! While the final boss is also attacking you! This leads to a genuine clusterfuck that in no way was designed without a personal fucking heal kit in your back pocket every few attacks. Its design doesn't lend itself well to the combat system, and it sure as hell doesn't do the rest of the game any favors when it all but practically gives up on the finalest stretch possible. Which is a shame because the rest of the fight is very good, albeit a difficult learning curve.

Alright, last few minor things to talk about. Level design is incredibly strong, with each level having a very distinct core identity centered around a couple of unique gameplay ideas. And in the classic Mega Man fashion, all tethered around the specific robot master (or in this case, Circuit) of said level. This leads into the "Wily" stages of the game which as usual raise the difficulty floor of the platforming and combat as well as throw in multiple stage's ideas into one making a new unique platforming experience for each one.

Story isn't a big thing in Mega Man games, but it got a little bit of limelight here in Gravity Circuit. It isn't all that incredible, still being just fine at best, but I found it really interesting that the plot seemed to travel down a more...JRPG-esque plotline? If you play the game you'll understand what I mean. It was a fun plot while staying relatively simple which is the most you could ask for when it comes to Mega Man-likes.

And last minor thing is this review is based on the base Hard Mode experience. Enemy damage felt fair until the aforementioned final boss shenanigans and the health pool didn't become an issue until the "Wily" stages as well. On top of that, I also did not find any of the health upgrades and found only one burst gauge upgrade. In Mega Man X fashion, it is of course highly recommended to get those upgrades, but unlike X, you can find them on your first visits to levels...even if I didn't end up finding many. This of course doesn't impact my review that much, because I hold that the base kit should be more than capable of tackling all parts of the game, which in Gravity Circuit's case is almost entirely possible.

Gravity Circuit is an incredibly solid game. A lot of this review may have painted a different picture but I can assure you that my critiques are something that doesn't change the overall rating all that much. The game doesn't push boundaries, nor does it have an incredible quality to it... But every single piece of the game, from art direction, art quality, music, gameplay, and more exudes a love of the games it is based on. And most importantly, exudes consistent quality at a level of fun that any game worth its salt should wish to reach. Not all games have to be incredible 10 out of 10 masterpieces, sometimes, a game just has to be good quality fun. That is Gravity Circuit.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is unequivocally one of the worst games I have ever played in my entire life. You'd think that's hyperbole and yet it isn't. I get that the game was designed for a bite-sized FF experience for mobile, but that kind of cope is reserved for before a title gets a release on other platforms. The PSP version inside the FFIV Complete Collection treats this game like a game on the same level as FFIV proper, and if that's how it is then this game gets the bullet. There is so little content in this game that I would call original because 99% of it is just FFIV but again. It even steps further and has the entire final dungeon completely waste my time, reusing boss fights from across all pixel-based FF games in an overly long, monotonous, and shitty final act.

Let's start with gameplay changes because boy are the ones here fucking awful. The two big things are Bands and Moon Phases. Bands are interesting in concept and maybe could've been cool but unfortunately, it is ruined by being locked behind specific character interactions. If two characters can work together, they can use a Band, which requires them to both have ATB and a good amount of MP to deal massive damage together. However, since it can only be used on specific characters between other specific characters, finding a Band between characters is a complete waste of time. The only part of the game where the system is remotely fleshed out is in the final tale where you are basically thrown Bands like they are potions. Though in the end you won't end up using most of them. Next is Moon Phases, the worst mechanic someone has ever come up with. Whether it's from performing a specific amount of actions or by resting in an inn/tent, the moon phase will change, which will change how specific core mechanics perform in battle. For instance, one moon phase will up the damage on black magic but worsen the damage of regular melee attacks. There are four different moon phases the game rotates through and each affects only two types of mechanics at a time between melee, black magic, white magic, and...throwables? I think? One will be upped, the other will be destroyed. It completely sucks to play around because it either requires hoping for the moon to randomly change or wasting precious items so you can have the correct moon phase for specific fights. And I say correct instead of best because a lot of fights are built around extremely specific fighting conditions to an obscene degree that many times over I wanted to rip my eyes out.

Oh yeah, remember all of the cool characters and story beats that FFIV went over? Ever wonder what it would be like if they were ripped away and spit on? No? WELL HAVE FUN BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED! Not a single character was spared from this shitstaining system. It's not funny. At all. The combined ballbusting talents of the writing, storyline, and game design combine together to ruin characters that had been finalized and had their story told. I can't even begin to explain why it is so bad, just know that it is not worth giving a single shit about any of this game's characters. Even the new ones aren't really that interesting or great. If I had to pick maybe ONE character who I think had a glow-up it would be Palom. Seriously, that's it.

While I'm at it let's talk about the tale system. Awful. I get that the game was released in chunks for mobile but in retrospect, they shouldn't have been ok with it back then either. NOTHING about this system is good in any way. For seven of the first eight tales you are basically repeating the entire same chunk of story but from a differing perspective each time. This does nothing but lead to the most abhorrent and unenjoyable slog through what is essentially "recap: the video game" for over fourteen hours. The ninth tale is also basically completely pointless and explains exactly one tiny thing for the final tale. And the main issue with the final tale is well, now that you have all of the previous tales done, use your save data in this last tale to progress the story. Bad news though, if you are under-leveled, KILL YOURSELF! And oh yeah, there are like twenty fucking characters to make a party from and oh yeah, you probably need to get at the very least six to seven of these characters OVER THIRTY LEVELS HIGHER THEN WHERE THEY MIGHT START. My characters started the final tale at around 20-25 for most of them. From what I could gather, the required level to start the final dungeon is around FOURTY. AND TO FINISH THE FUCKING TALE YOU NEED TO BE OVER SEVENTY!?! Like I said, KILL YOURSELF.

The antagonist sucks. Like I literally have nothing else to say, they are just fucking terrible. They have zero presence and all of the endgame reveals feel completely vapid and soulless like they just needed some justification to wrap shit up. Throughout the game, the antagonist just mocks the player for wanting to give a shit, and then in the ending, it mocks you even more for giving any shits because the whole thing flips on its head to reveal that nothing fucking mattered in the end. That this whole story was pointless.

For the third official sequel to a Final Fantasy title, but the first in terms of game chronology, this was such a complete step backward from anything and everything that made Final Fantasy IV even remotely decent as a video game. Instead of getting a helping of new characters and a unique and interesting plot, all I got was over thirty-five hours of hoping and praying that someone would give me a goddamn out so I could stop playing. Nothing happens, nothing is worth any fucks, and clearly, the developers didn't give any either. As of writing, I have never played a video game as blatantly fucking terrible as this, even within this series of games. I hope every person who worked to make this colossal fucking failure wakes up every night in a cold sweat crying to themselves and begging for forgiveness. Fuck you. Fuck me. Fuck this game. and fuck Final Fantasy.

I find the game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations,
VERY. SOLID.

Trials and Tribulations or T&T for short, is the third title in the Ace Attorney trilogy. Coming off the heels of JFA, T&T still didn't have to do much to truly make a great sequel. All that was needed was a good set of cases with difficulty balanced correctly, a unique storyline that ties into the series as a whole, add some new gameplay mechanics, and most importantly to improve upon JFA. Overall, I think T&T did a remarkable job taking on the challenges of a proper sequel, but wanted to push the envelope just a bit further and close the trilogy off with a massive bang. On that note, I believe Trials and Tribulations bit off more than it could chew, but managed to mostly earn that ending note.

Before we can talk about the ending however, let's talk openings. The first case of each of these games is a tutorial case to try and get the potential new player to understand the game mechanics without having played the previous games in the series. However, there is a lot of important aspects to an opening case. To be good for both a new and returning player, an opening case has to explain all of the major characters, the main mechanics, and should be something completely fresh to keep things interesting. In JFA, Phoenix Wright was given amnesia to fit the need of trying to reteach the player which led to the case feeling incredibly dull and not living up to the narrative design aspirations the series loves so much. In T&T however, the first case you play as a younger Mia Fey on her second ever case after a long break from the courtroom. Immediately, this gives a far more interesting and compelling reason to reteach the old mechanics again. It's a "new character" taking on the courthouse without being as in the know as they should be. On top of this, the opening case introduces us to a unique backstory we never knew between Phoenix and Mia making the case incredibly appealing to veterans as well. And perhaps more remarkably, the opening case sets the stage of the entire game-length narrative without being in your face about any specific details. This leaves the prospective player in a position of curiosity for the future cases yet to come. So, the opening case is pretty good, but what about the rest of the game? Well, overall the game does a great job holding up the quality for the rest of the title but a few issues crop up here and there.

There really isn't a great way of taking these criticisms step by step as each one is very intertwined with one another, so to start I'll discuss what is perhaps the biggest issue with Trials and Tribulations: Justice For All. I know, I know. It seems odd at first, why would the game prior to this seemingly be the cause of issues here but it really is. Firstly, characters from JFA crop up a fair few times over the course of T&T and each time they do we get a decent explanation of who they are and why they know Phoenix and Co. On the surface this makes sense, of course you would explain who someone is so that players who haven't played would know them. However, it is far more than that. In short, for most of the runtime of T&T, the story and characters of JFA do not matter. For the aforementioned new player, they make it so T&T can be played without any knowledge of JFA which directly shafts the whole of JFA's attempt at a storyline... or so it seems until you hit case 5. Once you hit case 5, seemingly out of nowhere, JFA is important...maybe. It's extremely bizarre how the game flip flops between wanting players to remember and understand the character arcs and stories from JFA and then turning around to regurgitate similar arcs and stories in T&T. I'll deep dive into case 5 in a bit, but know for now that the case heavily leans on JFA's story and characters when the rest of the game doesn't. Lastly, JFA's Psyche-locks are back in T&T and still are just as terrible as they were in JFA. To briefly reiterate those points here: AA1 had an incredible game design structure that allowed the player a specific amount of mistakes per trial which would get reset per trial. JFA changed things and made it so the mistakes you have are carried throughout the entire case, only being reset on a case by case basis. And if you wanted to regain mistakes you would get them back from Psyche-locks but the whole system was pretty fucking terrible. Read my JFA review if you want a deeper explanation. Here in T&T, Psyche-locks are still around and basically completely unchanged. They still make the experience be very save-scummy and not very forward-thinking in nature.

Ok, now let's talk difficulty. Unlike the previous titles, case 1 is not nearly as much of a pushover and that's for a couple reasons. Firstly, the case intros of every case in T&T specifically are there to trick the player and make them confused and unable to plot a direct course to the killer. This is great, because it shows that T&T has confidence in itself as a sequel to treat players as series veterans. On top of that, case 1 uses it's playground-esque tutorial nature to nurture a naturally flowing case of discovery rather than a much easier think piece into direct killer-knowing. After case 1, the cases get a pretty decent spike in difficulty, but nothing unfounded. As expected the average case difficulty balances somewhere around AA1 case 5, either slightly below or above it. I think this is the perfect difficulty range for a game designed as a finale, zero complaints. Overall, I think the player-character immersion of AA1 is mostly back in this title, but still not nearly as consistent as that first adventure. I can think of several occasions where I got completely lost or thrown off the trial because the expected answer differed from my very similar answer. This mostly occurs in cases 2 and 5. Case 3 I found to be a pretty middle of the road challenge with a strong case identity that made sense. Case 4 is a weird one because of where it takes place in the game, it's harder than the tutorial case but is structured like one too. Overall though like 1 and 3 it flows quite nicely and very rarely are you stuck trying to figure stuff out.

Speaking of case 5, let's discuss it. AA1 setup the precedent of a game-ending case with its very own case 5, which had the player basically solving the game itself. JFA tried to do a similar thing with its case 4 but unfortunately that one didn't quite make the cut. T&T decided to go a step further. Instead of a game-ending case, T&T case 5 is more like a series-ending case. Rather than taking the major elements of the previous cases, case 5 instead takes the major elements of the previous games. An incredibly bold move that did not go without notice. On top of this, case 5 also intends to wrap up its own self-contained storyline AND wrap up a unwrapped side-plot introduced in JFA. While doing this it also attempts to give itself a noteworthy conclusion as an ending point of the trilogy. Clearly a lot is going on in this case and it is a massive undertaking. Unfortunately, as I said prior, I think this attempt was taking it way too far and pushing for things outside of the scope of the title. First and foremost, the focus of a finale case should be the game it is from. T&T pulls a lot of pieces from a lot of places, though I ultimately can't say many of them come from itself. In fact, most major elements come from Justice For All. This gives a pretty disjointed and rather weird experience as it makes the conclusion feel more like an attempt at recorrecting JFA's failures rather than pursuing a higher level of game-wide pants pissage. This rings especially true with the final note that the game ends on, which just so happens to be a nigh one-for-one rip from JFA's ending note. And it keeps going, because on top of being a JFA ending rip that reattempts JFA, it still for some reason brings back JFA characters and acts like that story still happened without giving nearly as much context as necessary to fully grasp and understand the story at play. This completely shatters any kind of idea that a new player should attempt to play this game after four cases of pretending they are fine! Flat out, this was a bad move... But, I can't say I hated it. At the very least, T&T case 5 manages to stick a solid ending that doesn't feel like it is in conflict with any prior narrative and character arcs which is far more than JFA can say. On that note, the game-wide story concludes on a pretty fulfilling note that makes sense. On the other hand, the series-wide story it tries to conclude nearly tumbles over, but managed to hold on just enough to be alright. And the main reason any of this was pulled off at all has got to be Godot.

Godot is the main prosecutor of Trials and Tribulations and honest to god deserves his own section. So he is getting one. As perhaps the most interesting and thought-provoking prosecutor in the series, Godot holds a position of equal interest and coolness as Edgeworth. For one, while he has his own unique quirks much like Franziska did, he is not annoying. And thank fucking god for that. It is one thing to be playing through the cases annoyed out of your mind at the continuous, game-wide joke that is Franziska and her whip. And it is another thing to be able to not only enjoy but brew over the character quirk that is Godot's coffee addiction while still enjoying the gameplay experience. Godot is the face of T&T and the main mystery of the game, while hiding the real mystery behind himself. Throughout the game, we are given small tidbits and ideas of who Godot might really be and what he is after but it is only nibbles much like the previous titles. Then in case 4 it pretty directly reveals the truth visually, but even still the game holds its cards close to the chest to hold back on the "Why?"s. Only in case 5 after slogging through the murky trials that lay out, do we really see the big picture and begin to understand the man behind the mask. Godot is as good as Edgeworth and if it wasn't for his journey, this game wouldn't be nearly as good as it is.

Trials and Tribulations is a great story and game. It does a fantastic job of holding the line on what is still one of the most unique and fascinating gameplay experiences one can enjoy. However, the heights it reaches for ultimately are what doom it to fall below the one that started it all. And worst of all, the game lives in a world where it comes after Justice For All. But if your game's worst problem is another game, then buddy, I think you got yourself a pretty damn good game.

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW OF THE GAMES IN THE COLLECTION! This is merely a review of the package. I have far more in-depth reviews written on each game in said package.

The Ace Attorney Trilogy is a beloved set of games with wacky turns and awesome attorneying fun. However when it comes to the quality of the package, I don't think much effort was put in to really make it a consumer "must-have". The HD visuals are indeed splendid, but for someone who may have played on the 3DS or even the original DS titles, it doesn't make too much of a difference. A good game is forever good, regardless of technical prowess. And unfortunately that's much of my issue with this collection, it is great for newcomers who just want to hop in, but for series vets the collection has very little to offer in terms of collectability or premium appeal. It is simply a package that holds three games with no extra fluff for the fans. No music player of any kind which is baffling considering how well loved the soundtracks for these titles are. No art gallery to look at concept art, case artwork, or even in-game CGs. The package itself isn't exactly crudely made or anything, but without any sort of special care, it feels extremely hard to care.

This review is purely based on the campaign, the editor and custom level portion of the game is fantastic but in usual Maker fashion simultaneously a one out of ten and a ten out of ten.

I Wanna Maker's campaign is incredibly solid. It uses itself as an introduction to all of the potential mechanics and interactions you can find in the editor. While it does this it also hosts a decent sized fangame that's designed for new players to get into the subgenre. On that front, I can do nothing but appreciate what Maker does for fangames on an incredible level.

Each world of Maker has a specific theme which are all pretty great, hosting their own specific mechanics and using them to an interesting degree. The worlds have around 5-7 levels each with their own distinct premise and nearly all of them are quite fun. Each world also ends with a unique boss fight to round out the kind of fangame moments one can experience. The bosses in Maker's campaign are particularly good too, especially the final boss which uses the medium of a Maker game to make a unique, innovative, and impressive finale.

If you've never played a fangame before, start here and enjoy the journey you'll embark on. The ride never stops...

Rise of the Tomb Raider is better than Tomb Raider 2013, but it isn't as good as it should be. A lot of my problems with 2013 have been fixed in this title, but some really core issues have had no changes whatsoever leading to a somewhat mixed bag still. While I think I can find myself recommending this title much more than the previous, overall the game does little to keep itself from being more than just a Tomb Raider 2013 sequel.

If you haven't read my Tomb Raider review, here's a short recap of my pros and cons from that title:
1. Combat was a rich puzzle-like experience with the four weapons at hand and the multiple ammo types. However, melee combat felt sluggish and unrefined, making it exceptionally hard to choose even when it should be a must in a scenario. And shield enemies weren't really designed all that well.

2. Exploration felt very hard to come by because most environments were so distinctly linear and all of the actual collectibles and exciting stuff like Tombs were either way too short or such a small off-road that they didn't feel exciting in any way. Environmental traversal was pretty alright all things considered, very triple A in nature, but still interesting enough to not have me bored.

3. The story and characters were laughably bad. There was barely any down time so it felt like the game was treating me like a toddler, and the game couldn't be assed to give Lara a consistent characterization both in and out of cutscene. Both ludo narrative and narrative dissonance at its finest.

4. Context Sensitivity plagues the game, from traversal to enemy encounters and more. The main offenders being climbing, stealth kills, and crouching or the general stealth state. Cover was inconsistent because it hinged on you being crouched, which wouldn't always occur because it was context sensitive. Crouching while in stealth was also a complete gamble as the moment you are caught you cannot go back into stealth no matter what.

Ok, so with that out of the way let's get to the meat of this review. First off is combat, which has had a major rehaul taking it from good to great. The main four weapons make a return: Bow, Pistol, Rifle, and Shotgun. However, this time around not only do we have multiple unique ammo types for each weapon, we also have different types of weapon. This gives the player a great amount of freedom when it comes to discovering a playstyle for themselves. The plethora of weapon choices and their accompanying upgrades give the combat a real edge over the predecessor. Another great thing is the melee combat, it isn't perfect but they really refined the movement and weight on the climbing axe to feel much better this time around. Overall, melee still feels like a last resort, but unlike Tomb Raider 2013, it feels like a resort I can at least rely on. The finisher system is still not exactly all that great though, it still very easily leaves you open and up for attacks while you kill an enemy. Oh and of course shield enemies! One specific change was made to make these enemies far more bearable and it comes in the form of a specific skill on the skill tree. By the time shield enemies become prominent in the game, you will almost guaranteed have the necessary perks to take care of shields quickly and effectively, solving my problem with them entirely. Each new piece of this combat system laying on top of each other leads to a similar feeling but ultimately more rich combat experience in the long term, which helps when the core game is so similar. Finally, the biggest change to combat was the ability to craft healing, special ammos, and makeshift throwables during a fight. This really spices up combat encounters a whole hell of a lot. Each thing you can craft requires specific resources which are used for those specific craftables and also for upgrading your weapons themselves. This leads to a pretty fun risk-reward system in the heat of battle where a player has to choose between resources that could save them from losing a fight to keeping said resources so they can improve weapons for later encounters. The craftable healing is especially an interesting forced decision-making tool... but only if you are on hard mode or higher. On hard or higher, the game will not heal you in an encounter if you just wait, you have to be combat-free to heal naturally. In this regard, I find the game on hard to be the definitive and intended design experience. The difficulties higher than hard are weird edge-cases that go against the core design and the diffs lower take this intended play loop and softens it up.

Exploration is up next and wow did they clean this part up! Environments on the whole have been designed with an exploration-first-structure leading to a very natural loop of entering a new open zone and entering some caves and finding stuff. With these larger traversal zones, the game also made the addition of quests. Some NPCs will be stationed in specific zones with random objectives you can complete for rewards, these range from weapon parts, outfits, and even key items. On the whole I think the system is a little bit shoddy but in general still a good idea. The main issue with quests is sometimes they require certain materials or certain areas that one could already have/completed. Thus making the quest complete by default. This isn't always the case, but it happened enough times to where I stopped taking any more quests at all. Now one of the most important exploration experiences is tombs, the supposed meat of a Tomb Raider game I'd wager. 2013's were a goddamn travesty, but compared to those, Rise is far and away better. Tombs are still mostly single puzzle rooms, however, the puzzles themselves, the act of entering the tombs, and the tombs' unique visual designs give each one a large charm that was not present before. However, I think the puzzles still need some work, most tomb puzzles are still far too simple for my liking. In general though, a tomb as a whole piece of the exploration experience feels worth going for now not just because the act of doing one feels more rewarding, but the game actual rewards you for doing them as well. This is a consistent thing across the game too, when exploring you are more often rewarded with genuine pieces that add to the core gameplay loop. This can range from parts of new weapons to even skills. The expanded pool of rewards makes the act of being a damn Tomb Raider that much more worth while which is exactly what was missing from 2013. And as a last note, environmental traversal has also gotten a tiny lift in Rise. Only a tiny bit because while a few select environments feel designed with multiple future items in mind, many of these environments still feel segmented so that a player could clear through them with what they have on hand at the moment they arrive. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it does make it harder to want to revisit areas due to this, meaning one of the only reasons to revisit places is for the new questing opportunities that appear as you progress...but like I said the quests feel a lot more superficial compared to a more rich environment.

Story has not been a big part of the Tomb Raider series, even with their supposed revitalized focus on it due to the more apparent triple A nature present in the reboot series. Rise is no exception to this rule, but unlike its predecessor it is a lot more confident in itself enough to actually have some breathing room. It doesn't show this off at first though, which leaves a bit of a bad first impression. In fact, the opening to Rise feels eerily similar at first to 2013's opening. Big huge bombastic, zero attention span opening with crazy moments and huge music stings and all that. Then the game rewinds the clock a bit to give some context which is the first genuine breather moment, and luckily the context actually makes some sense and means something this time around. The opening of 2013 did no such thing and ended up cursing the game before it even began. In comparison, after the player comes back to the present timeframe in Rise, the game is more willing to let the player enter into an environment and actually take a break. This is huge because it was the biggest pitfall of 2013's story experience. In that game, there was zero breaks the entire time leading to every single encounter expected to have something go wrong. Rise also finds itself pulling a lot of fast ones, but not constantly which I appreciate. Now, the actual story content itself is...still very lackluster... By the end especially, Rise feels like it loses steam and starts to copy from 2013's story just so it can make it to the finish line. Both in Rise and 2013, the stories were very bland stories with very little narrative depth or nuance. Don't expect anything different here. However, something that is different is Lara, and thank god for it! Lara Croft feels genuine in this game, and that is something that cannot be understated. Compared to the wishy-washy cake-having-but-cake-eating Lara of 2013, Rise's Lara feels consistent throughout the gameplay experience. She has lived through 2013 and toughened up because of it, leading her to not hesitate when it comes time to pull the trigger or to do something she thinks is right. In general, she stays feeling like a badass rather than flip-flopping between badass and bitchass. And the other characters aren't all that bad either, except for the one they brought back over from 2013 who...honest to god they barely give a reason for existing here. If they left him out, I don't think a single person would've been upset at all. His plotline in Rise feels so forced it brings in some genuine nonsense that annoyed the hell out of me. But I digress...

Now, we can't talk triple A slop games without taking about the good ol Context Sensitivity. Man...am I disappointed that they changed absolutely nothing. Basically every single thing that was context sensitive in 2013 is the same here. And it fucking sucks. Once again, climbing, stealth kills, the stealth state itself, crouching, all fucking context sensitive. I discussed why these are all bad before but I really wanna dig deep on one in particular here: Stealth. Stealth has been and continues to be a context sensitive state that is the only time during gameplay when the game will put up its hands and go "nuh uh, sorry buster, but this is not for you to choose," leading to many encounters where either preferred stealth or optional stealth feels more like an impossibility to stay in rather than a good way to get rid of some enemies prior to an encounter starting. When in an enemy encounter, you start engaged in stealth, this means you can crouch behind small boxes as well as in bushes. During this time, you can stealth kill someone if you get up close to them without being spotted, however stealth kills do make noise. Here is the issue: if for whatever reason you are ever spotted or thought to be spotted, stealth ends for that encounter and cannot be regained. When I say thought to be spotted, I mean it, sometimes the game will decide to say you have been found when you are still very clearly in hiding in a place that no one has been close to at all and since the investigative state began you have not left or even peaked out of. This genuinely happens. Once any dead enemy is spotted, stealth is basically immediately compromised. This feels really bad when in action because sometimes you are doing extremely well at stealth only for someone to decide you can't stealth anymore. And of course, once you are out of stealth, enemies ALWAYS know where you are regardless of any kind of vision parameter being met or anything. Sometimes, just the fact that you, the player, see an enemy, can cause them to spot you and lose the stealth state and be consistently known in location the entire encounter. Which seriously ruins any kind of potential in a stealth experience. I am not asking for Metal Gear Solid, I am simply asking for better. And this is still not it. Because even without stealth being as poor as it is, crouching is still context sensitive! Meaning the only option you have to keep yourself safe from bullets and behind cover isn't even up to you as a player. It is a choice you don't get to choose. And hell while I'm still angry, I might as well shit on the fact that the wall cover-system is a complete broken mess and has been since 2013. Rarely if ever does the wall cover work as intended. Sometimes you can get away with shooting at an enemy while being completely behind the wall. Other times you might find yourself begging God himself to please make Lara peak the left fucking wall I am right next to it, IT SHOULD FUCKING WORK. But no, it never works. More often than not, if I ever found myself trying to rely on the broken cover mechanics I would simply abuse a wall that an enemy couldn't get near me on the left from and kill everyone. It wasn't fun, but hey, neither is not being able to decide how my character responds to the environment in combat.

Before I finish up, here's a little bit of a extra tid bits category of random pros and cons. The game's skill system and upgrade system far outclasses 2013 in many ways. The limited resource system that holds up the risk-reward factor in combat as well as makes the upgrade trees themselves inherently interesting was a good choice even if at times the specific materials required feel out of the way. And the skill system is a complete overhaul from the first game, all three trees feel a lot more in-depth with some genuinely really great skills that make progressing feel good. Also you get skill points really easy in this game, and I am slightly indifferent on whether or not it is good or bad. On the whole, the game feels so similar to 2013 in core mechanics and design, it at times feels very easy, maybe even rudely so, a "Big DLC". I think the level of changes within the systems themselves remove any potential doubts about this being a sequel rather than a "Big DLC," but the sentiment is still there and has roots. In general, I think the environments in this game are a good bit more diversified compared to 2013, but the snowy Siberia setting for a good half of the game doesn't do it any favors. At times it can feel more samey than 2013, which is not a good feeling, even when I know it isn't true.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the second game in the Tomb Raider Reboot series. While it is undoubtably the better game compared to 2013's Tomb Raider, the quality of the content and the systems still feels remarkably held back from what should have been a higher standard. Even with the fact that this game was made in essentially two years after the first reboot game, they could have taken time to really flesh out the mechanics some more and actually give some more player agency in controls and encounters. If you were a fan of 2013, Rise will be great for you, but if 2013 was not your cup of pee then don't even bother trying. This is not a new attempt at Tomb Raider, but at a refined 2013 experience. Also this game is completely playable without touching 2013, so, give it a try if 2013's laughably poor character writing and story made you wanna die. Cause this one does a little bit better! Here's to at least hoping they at least add a goddamn crouch button in the next reboot game.....