are you using your time to properly think and talk with art? are you listening? or do you plug your ears anytime it tries to talk with you, to challenge you and make you rethink what you're engaging with?

i don't think i have any common ground with most people who like videogames, actually. but i don't think this is just videogames anymore, this is endemic in all of the arts. people stopped being listeners, started being consumers. no long a plot twist will make your heart skip a beat, now it's the author "betraying" your trust. no longer can complicated concept be presented before your public, now you're "fumbling", "overdesigning" or whatever new word people will invent to use as analytical shortcuts. like, really, you spent 90h with this game and all you could get back from it was that it has "Ubisoft-like" design because it has towers? i don't care if you gave the game 4 or 5 stars or if that was a compliment, is it that hard to think more about it? am i setting the bar too high? probably.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is not a product, it's an art piece which you converse with (that's honestly 99.9% of games too btw). hefty admission price for sure, but it does not need to cater to you at any moment. it needs to be heard, seen, felt, I think running around the grasslands felt incredible and vibrant, i love how every map changes its whole design based on the chocobos, i love how sidequests have their own little songs to them with battle music included, i love how every character gets explored a whole ton more because now they have the time to do so, I love how Tifa can be herself instead of Cloud's past, I liked every change, I think this game is probably one of the most courageous games ever made and that will ever be made and people won't appreciate it enough, but that's fine because I will.

the more i think about it, the more i think about its last hours, the more i think how they handled -that moment- the more I like it. I like this and Remake for entirely different reasons, but Rebirth made me feel things I don't think i was even aware I could feel playing a game and I don't mean crying i cry for everything and i cried super hard at several moments in this game, it's something else, which i would only dare to explain if I had spoilered this text but i don't want to do so.

like i said i think i finally realized my lack of common ground is what makes it really hard to talk about videogames outside of my circle, people who only wear "videogames are art!!" as a mantle for feeling validated, but not really treating them much differently than the hamburger they'll buy for lunch. i don't mind if you didn't like the game but i only ask for something of substance, an interesting read, at the very least a personal perspective, not internet gaming buzzwords i can see in like 60 other reviews. i just want to think and challenge myself and i feel like i'm always going into a hivemind. but i guess that's fine i get to cherish good things when i see them at least.

i just need to remind myself of this

When I heard that the Sonic Mania team were making an original 3D platformer of their own it was an instant day one purchase for me no matter what. Despite obvious Mario Odyssey / Galaxy inspiration, this is really going to be unlike any platformer you've played before. At first the movement feels strange and it's a lot to learn and get used to, and this will cause some people to fall off it and give up on it much like with 3D Sonics, but if you are willing to put in the time it eventually becomes second nature to rack up massive stylish combos in these stages. Using the right stick for the yoyo makes everything feel so much better. Skill ceiling is crazy high here and there's so many ways to use momentum to your advantage to save so much time. Visual style is remincent of the later SEGA consoles and Tee Lopes has outdone himself with the soundtrack.

I'm not going to pretend the game doesn't have its fair share of jank, but it was honestly such a refreshing joy to play and I have already replayed its levels a bunch and can see myself continuing to do that. I remember Mania having problems at launch too so I think it will become more polished over time. If you like deceptively complex platformers that have lots of player expression, or liked Odyssey movement but want challenging level designs that actually make use of all those tricks, I think it's going to be a game for you. I'm not so bitter about the fact Mania 2 will never exist anymore...

In a lot of ways P3R is as good as you could wish for a remake to be, but its visual and auditory shortcomings are hard to ignore. Still this is one of the most fun RPGs you can play and I barely put it down since release.

First thing you'll notice is that the UI and character animations / art are mostly incredible, I love the ocean blue aesthetic for the menus and it doesn't feel too much like a copy of P5's. Gameplay is amazing, incorporating the best mechanics of newer games like the Baton Pass but now with actual balancing. The "Showtime"-esque mechanic with flashy special attacks isn't completely braindead and adds new strategies. This is pretty easily the best combat in the Persona series and every boss fight has been upgraded a lot in terms of gimmicks and challenge, making them stand out more from one another. Tartarus has also been fleshed out considerably speeding up the levelling process. You can mix and match all party members without anyone falling too far behind. P3 already had the best written story but certain characters with less screen time in the original have been given way more attention, and the male members of SEES can be hung out with giving their own bonuses. Finally QOL changes mean the average player will see much more of what the game has to offer in the side content. So both gameplay and story are a huge success here!

Sadly Reload didn't even try to be a definitive version of P3. Besides the obvious missing FES content (likely getting added as expensive DLC) and Portable, there's much more terrible decisions. The most insane is obviously the remixed music. The P3 OST is one of the most beloved of all time and not even having it as an OPTION in the remake is downright criminal. WIthout exception every remix has worse mixing and less power than its original, and the sound effects are weaker too. The vocalist doesn't fit P3's vibe and sounds like she's straight up struggling with the songs. New tracks are decent but again don't fit the mid 2000s vibe and were clearly made without Meguro's involvement. Presentation is also all over the place. It can look really nice in the day sections with the 60fps and raytracing implemented. but a lot of Dark Hour scenes look horrible now. How is it even possible for a PS2 game to have better lighting than a PS5 one? My last major complaint is the new anime cutscenes. Any sense of the raw edginess and symbolism of the original is gone for a much more sterile direction, and the scenes chosen to be 2D animated are randomly chosen like the awesome awakening scene which is now animated in engine and it just kinda sucks.

It doesn't replace FES for me which still reigns supreme in terms of SOVL but it could maybe have been perfect had it been given more time and budget. Now we have 3 completely different versions of P3 :D