This is just a glorified tech demo (complementary). I missed it at launch but I can empathize with the feeling of the hype people felt with the launch of the PS5 and having this game be the first one you played be super vindicating. Such a stellar showcase and loveletter. The dualsense is an absolute sensory overload at first. The pinpoint responsiveness ends up heightening the experience beyond anything I've played, maybe ever. I don't have any complaints with the game itself besides it being a bit basic outside of its gimmicks. This is masterbatory brand pandering but I am not immune to it I love properganda thank you brand.

I clapped when I saw it. And then I was sad.

In all seriousness I feel like it needs to be said that Sony is still a fundamentally fucked up corporation with a litany of serious problems, particularly at the time of writing this review, and that people enjoying this is not an endorsement of those ideals. The celebration of the company on display is bittersweet and evokes a yearning for a time where I was too young to follow or understand the industry, and the things I liked didn't come with any caveats or asterisks. But that's an ignorant way to consume anything, especially in a form of media that is so formative for myself and others even now. This review kind of took a bleak turn as I was writing it but all these thoughts took place in the less than 3 hours I spent with this game. That's the kind of evocative response this game gets out of you, whether it was intended or not.

Focuses on the "Catch 'em All" element with the shift in style and makes it easy and fun to do. It has a repetitiveness that feels more cathartic than annoying. Definitely more fun than the boss battles. When the standard dodge feels like a Dark Souls heavy roll you fucked up somewhere. Surprisingly, there were a lot of great characters which I wasn't expecting. The story is brain-dead and meandering, which I was expecting. This might be the worst looking game TPC will ever release. I did kind of get used to it after staring at it for 80ish hours but good lord.I fully completed the game so I can't harp on it too much. The core of what's here is enjoyable and I can see it improving with a new entry in this style.

Going through the games in release order, this is the weakest by a considerable margin, but this was still a treat. I don't think Apollo and Trucy are quite as strong as Phoenix and Maya, but they're still fun to watch. Gavin was a really fun rival with a killer theme song. There was, to put it lightly, a lot of dumb shit, even compared to other Ace Attorney games. The way the judicial system works is inconsistent, and that ends up being the theme of the game. It's an interesting point to touch on, but the way they convey it is through events that are incongruous with how things would rationally take place. I'm always a fan when these games come full circle, and this entry does that particularly well. You are fed bits of information throughout the game that all feel like they pay off. This game never really has the impact of its predecessors, but I don't think that warrants it being disregarded, because this was still a great time.

I'm gonna start by mentioning that this soundtrack is unbelievable. Any nostalgic love I had for the original score is shoved aside in favor of this update. It helps that the overall tone of the game is very in line with the original for the most part and the score miraculously reflects that while adding as much depth as you can expect updating for the current generation. It is absolutely the stand out aspect.

It really is just nice to see expanded characterization for these characters. Everyone gets depth to their personalities that all work well. Work was put into fleshing out every minor entity you might come across, and it was just cool to see. They are taking the narrative in a fascinating direction and that's super exciting. I am eagerly awaiting where things go from here because I know it will be fresh. The voice acting was pretty good overall, but I did have a problem with the voice directing at times. I get that working with a translated work is going to make things come off a little off but I know I've had this problem with a lot of FF games. It just doesn't feel as natural as I know it could.

The combat is fun… mostly. The core is solid. The ATB integration is great. You're basically just subbing out doing nothing between commands with standard action combat. There are a couple things I'd like improved. Not having any invincibility frames on your dodge feels bad. I could see how it could get exploited with this game's mechanics, but not having it at all really sucks. I'm also not a fan of how actions can get interrupted and lost entirely. I'd be alright if the action was interrupted and I still maintained my ability to act again, but having it just taken from you blows. This isn't even really a problem with difficulty, since I didn't have too much trouble in that regard. I'd honestly opt for a harder game with these improvements in place. Overall these issues did not deter me all that much.

This game looks stupid gorgeous. Midgar fully realized this is something I knew I would be excited to see, even if I have to see it between crawling through several thousand squeeze throughs. There were also some… interesting choices made with the skybox at some points. I don't know if they look intentionally shitty in reference to the old games considering how much they force you to look at them, but the ugliness sets in before any joke does.

I'm a big fan of the original FF7, but I played it only a couple years ago, so I can't say it was anything formative for me personally. If this was a standard 1 to 1 remake I would still have enjoyed it a lot, but seeing the direction it's heading has me more invested and intrigued than I otherwise would be. I'm happy to finally get my hands in this game. It's a somewhat mixed bag but the good really shines through.

Truly puts other FPS's to shame in terms of game feel. The progression felt spot on. I enjoyed the larger maps a lot more than those of 2016's. The tone is a good balance between a great sense of humour and legitimately cool. There were times where I thought the game was just blatantly unfair but as soon as I'd completed a challenge and was able to percolate on it I realized that success was earned in me adapting to the situation, and that feels really good to realize after bashing your head against something that seems impossible. I had some technical foibles, and all the shit that was clearly publisher medling was egregious but aside from that it's a game I just can't stop thinking about playing.

I don't really hear anyone talk about what this game does right so let me lead off with that. The voice performances in this game are great, for Deacon especially. There are so many idiosyncrasies with his speech pattern that a lot of games just don't bother with. Every time he's on screen it's fun to watch. The dialogue between characters is quite good. On the scale of Whedon-esque cringe quirky to genuinely humorous it leans primarily to the latter while only occasionally dipping into the former. I also don't hate how the bike feels. Once you get used to the feel of it I found myself enjoying just ripping around to each destination.

Alright so yeah the story is just abysmal. Every character's actions are just nonsense. There is not one moment in this game where I say to myself, "oh that's a good point". Deacon ends up being incredibly unlikable even as the game insists he's the most righteous man alive.

The gameplay loop is disappointing. You have the standard gunfights, the stealth option, big horde battles, and none of it feels like it's used to its full potential. The only aspect of the game I genuinely found good was the bike riding, but that isn't used for anything besides travelling, and when they do add combat to it it's more simple than any of the other gameplay styles.

It has been a long time since I've had this many problems with a games performance. Mechanics like stealth kills would just stop working. The slow down hurt my brain.

When I started the game I was confused as to why such a middling game was generating so much ire, but as the game went on, for far too long I must say, I started to get it. There is so much missed potential here, but they opted out of any of that for something so generic and formulaic that it's just kinda sad.

This game really delivers in all regards. The combat is well designed. All characters have their particular uses and they always gelled with each other. I never found myself tired of it and even consistently sought out battles on the field throughout the whole game. The only time it doesn't really work is for the bosses that take up the whole grid. It's antithetical to the whole system.

The story, and arguably the draw to the whole game, is very engaging. Once the core component of the split timeline was introduced I really got invested. I do wish there was more variation but that ultimately doesn't affect the narrative provided. What does affect it is how jumping between timelines when a requirement is met doesn't stop you from just skipping over the new stuff while trying to find it. There are games that do this perfectly so when I don't see it utilized it kinda bums me out.

The characters are all good. This might be an odd complaint but it irked me just enough to bare mentioning. All major characters have character portraits in game, but it seems like some just weren't given one. I don't know if it was a time or budget constraint or they just omitted them intentionally but it seemed odd to me.

The music is another stand out. There aren't a ton of tracks in the game, but much like the combat I never found myself tiring of hearing them. The battle music in particular is incredibly catchy. I do wish there was a bit more diversity. Towns having unique tracks would help.

In summary, this game never blows anything out of the water, but for what it is trying to deliver, I'd say it's a great experience.

It can't be overstated how vast of an improvement this is over the original. Visually this game is on another level, even compared to more modern Tales games. Both the amazing pixel art in battles and the 3d rendered world are vibrant.

The combat is some of the best in the series as well. I had a much easier time executing combos than I have in any other Tales games. Being 2D helps a lot, and it's definitely the best 2D Tales combat by a huge margin. The visual response to every hit really elevates it. Heavy hits feel brutal, and rapid strikes feel like I'm eviscerating the enemy. The swordians add some customizability, but only for half the cast. I really enjoyed playing as Kongman and it would have been nice to have that level of fine tuning to him, as well as the others who don't have swordians.

The cast was quite good, if not greatly over bloated. Throughout the game, including Swordians you have a total of 15 party members. This can be fine in some games but it really left a lot of characters under-used. The story is pretty standard fare for these games and doesn't really break the mold in any way. The overall tone is on the more lighthearted side, which is totally fine. I usually have a problem when these games have a more grounded approach but one character is just off the goop, but it doesn't feel that way when the whole cast are kind of dorks.

Now my biggest gripes with this game, and why it isn't rated higher, are the dungeons. I can't confirm this since I didn't beat the original game, but the level designs feel so archaic compared to the rest of the game it feels like they didn't update the design at all. The last third, in particular, is inexcusable. They were dreadfully long and mechanically tedious. Only stuck through it on the grounds that I like the core gameplay a lot.

I guess the only other thing worth mentioning is that the only translated version of this game available right now is rough as hell. I didn't change my rating based on it, since it is unofficial and effectively not a fault of the game itself, but the translation is a mess in its current state. It's impressive and admirable that we are able to play this game at all, but unless you are chomping at the bit to complete the series, I'd say hold off on this one, at least for now.