Ever since this came out in 2012 I have constantly revisited it. For a game that was developed by a group of people from a bunch of different message boards primarily brought together by one piece of art, you would expect it to be passable at best, not a genuinely, incredibly well-written romance story that can be silly at one moment and then emotional the next.

As someone who is aromantic and rarely finds romantic plots in stories anything more than an often-unnecessary B-Plot (and even less commonly enjoys straight relationships since, being a guy, I usually unconsciously put myself in the male role and thus find it even less appeal), I can say that Katawa Shoujo is a game I should not like but honestly might consider some of - if not THE - best romantic plots in media. Having recently replayed it on and off over the past few years after learning about the death of one of the co-directors (RIP Raide), I don't think I can really pin-point any point of the game that I think is bad. Some of the jokes don't land or have aged, yeah, but I didn't think they ruined the experience at all.

Overall I highly recommend this to everyone. It's free, too, so it's not like there's any cost involved if you don't end up liking it.

Honestly the worst part of the game is that Miki didn't get a proper route. I know they wrote one and released that script or synopsis (I don't remember. I read it once) at some point but it's a shame it wasn't included in the game.

A very, very good update to an already great puzzle platformer. This version does have some problems though. The hurtboxes for Shy Guys seem to be a bit messed up - it's not uncommon to jump onto one and somehow die - and this is especially prominent in the new icy world.

Speaking of: the new levels are so much worse than the others in the game. They have neat ideas but they are not executed well at all. The main reason is that the ice physics (and particularly Mario's weird spin jump) don't feel like they were properly thought out. They might work well like this in a 2D platformer but these levels are usually barely larger than a single screen; the DK boss fight using this gimmick makes it especially apparent how much of an issue this weird skating jump doesn't fit into the slower, more-methodical movement system of the rest of the game.

It's a stark reminder how Nintendo Software Technology hasn't been allowed to make a new game in over a decade besides the other Mario vs. Donkey Kong games that nobody cared about and some crossword things on the 3DS. Hopefully they'll be allowed to make new games at some point again.

Fate/stay night is a really cool game. The characters are fun, the game's writing is great, and the lore it creates is very interesting. Honestly I get why the Fate franchise became so huge.

Unfortunately I could only really stand to play about one and a half routes of the game because I don't really like Emiya as a protagonist. Not that he's bad (he is a bit annoying though) but I don't relate to Emiya at all and wouldn't make most of the decisions available in any situation. He's also like weirdly sexist (or chivalrous... which is just sexism but with better intent I guess) in Saber's route where he's like "GIRLS SHOULDN'T FIGHT" which is kinda weird considering she's better at fighting than most other characters in the game lmao

Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix is one of those C-tier budget games based on an anime/mobile game for a cash-grab so obviously it's not objectively good. That said, if you go into it knowing what it is and expecting little, the game's fine. The fact that every character's story mode seems to have some unique moments is cool, and it's replayable in that you need to beat it multiple times to hit all the treasure icon spots.

It's good for what it is. Granted I do tend to really enjoy these weird, kinda-jank arena not-quite-fighter games made on a budget. It kinda reminds me of Azur Lane Crosswave in a lot of ways. It's mindlessly repetitive enough that it can be fun to play while listening to podcasts or whatever.

The game definitely does its job, at least. I did end up watching the anime after starting this game. So yeah I guess I'm an Alice Gear Aegis fan now?

Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix is a terrible name though. Alice Gear Aegis already doesn't really make much sense but they try to explain it in the lore (I think? Based on what I've gathered). Concerto of Simulatrix, though? What a weird name. The game's not even based around music!

This game has no reason to be as well thought-out as it is.

I'm not a big fan of survival games like Ark (I played it once and remember running around and dying a lot) but honestly the simplicity of this game is really nice. Even if there were no Pals this game would still be a fairly good beginner-friendly survival game... even if I'm not the biggest fan of the genre.

The Pals add a weird additional layer to the game though. On one hand they feel randomly thrown in and look completely different compared to everything else, and yet the gameplay mechanics surrounding them feel perfectly implemented? Like with other survival games you'd need to generate electricity or use thermal or hydro power to power certain equipment, but in Palworld all you have to do is find a Water or Fire Pal - something that seems super intuitive. Oh you need to power a furnace? Here's a Fire guy!

The fact that the developers are known to have basically ripped off successful games (something that isn't necessarily bad on its own if done well - everything is essentially building off of something from before) and yet Palworld feels like they took the idea of "hey what if we made an open world not-Pokemon survival game" and then made a very beginner-friendly survival game with some goofy creature designs.

I also love the chicken Pals. Not to compare this game to Pokemon (because honestly besides the fact that monsters exist it's not really similar) but why hasn't Pokemon given us a good chicken yet? There's only, what, Torchic? Palworld does have the better chicken here. They've got dead, soulless eyes and somehow keep spawning inside of my house.

I know there are people who like this game but, I'm sorry, I think this genuinely might be the worst platform fighter I've played.

A lot of the decisions for this game feel either corporate mandated or were made specifically to be less like Smash Bros. without thinking if these decisions were good. The control scheme, for instance, doesn't really feel as intuitive and honestly I still have no idea which attacks are supposed to be "special moves".

The biggest problem with the game though is that no one seems to have any weight. The game feels weirdly floaty, and it doesn't help that every character can jump like four times, has air dashes, and a recovery move. Every fight feels like it's a Newton's Cradle; you hit someone, they come back, they hit you, you come back.

Basing the game around 2v2 fights is a neat idea, but a major problem with this is that some characters just become kinda useless if you want to play as them in 1v1, so there's a weird intentional unbalancing with how characters play.

Honestly the best thing about the game is that it looks good. The graphics and animations are actually pretty cool looking. It's just a shame they have to be in a game that isn't really worth playing.