Memento Mori

I remember the night I beat Persona 3. It was a late hot night, around May. I remember the March 5 scene so vividly, getting hit with that screen transition that takes you to the credits, being bitch slapped by Memories of You. It's one of those things that sticks with you. Now, years later, and here we are with that remake that was endlessly rumored about. To preface this, this is kind of a double "review" in a way, I wanna compare and contrast the original with the remake, what works more and what doesn't, and all of that. The TL;DR: give both versions a whirl at some point.

I feel like the original Persona 3 is a game that I should love more than I do. Don't get me wrong, if you asked I'd tell you "yeah I think Persona 3 is remarkable and one of my most cherished video game experiences." It's themes of death and memory, it's story, it's cast, it all just resonated with me so hard, and the social aspects of it are neat to an extent as well. Top that off with that rad as fuck soundtrack, and it's a hell of an experience. But as a game, I don't have all too much fun with it. Now, I know that I'm picky with turn based, I don't hate it but it's not my favorite type of gameplay. It can be fun I don't wanna sound like some obnoxious ass, but it's not always engaging, and P3's gameplay was rough to me. I know why it is the way it is, I get it and respect that choice, but here's where I stand: If I'm not having fun, then it's not good to me. I don't like tartarus all too much, it can be a slog; I don't like not being able to directly tell my teammates what moves to do, I know the tactics are there but it can still be messy. But the story, cast, and theme really make the strife worthwhile. So the remake was announced and I had some worries but wanted to be optimistic. I haven't been as in love with Persona as I was since I was 18 (I still love the sub series but man, talking about it isn't very fun lmfao) but I was cautiously optimistic, and with every piece of info I got less scared about the remake. Atlus is a weird company, they suck but they know how to make a good game, and the remake is good. Really really REALLY good.

To get a teeny tiny bit personal, death is something that I've been thinking about every day now for over a decade. Even more so now, and I feel like a lot of us have been, with that pandemic and things just going to shit around a lot of us, myself included. It's hard not to think about it. With that, it feels like this remake dropped at the perfect timing. P3 was one of those games that could help me kinda cope with some of life's issues (and Death Stranding kino peak game), so having this game rn in a brutally tough chapter of life is nice. Despite the depressive storybeats and all that, Persona 3 is one of the most life-affirming games out there. It's beautiful. And the remake really nails it. It doesn't change too much to make it an entirely different experience, but makes the changes it needed to make.

I won't get into spoilers, but I do still wanna talk about the story, why it's important, and why it works so well. Persona 3 on paper is a "prevent the end of the world" plot that has layers and layers of shit in it. There is a ton of depth with the characters, the story, and the themes. The cast is so great, they all have their flaws and vices, and you watch them all grow throughout the game as they experience both fond memories and terrible tragedy, and all these experiences shape them up, and it's done and told fantastically. I think overall P3's story is my favorite in the subseries, and here it's basically unchanged. Reload does make some additions that, while they don't fix my complaints, add needed context and scenes to flesh out these characters. It's not really spoilery I think, but there's another group in the game called Strega, and aside from Chidori, they were just so bland and one note. The new scenes expand their story and purpose in the plot and I like that, but Takaya is still really goofy at points and Jin is just boring. As for the dub, well, I think a part of me will always prefer the original, but I do like this dub. To highlight some of the performances, I think Fuuka's VA is genuinely great, I love how "gooberish" she sounds in the original, her OG VA sucks in an endearing way, but here she really fits the character good. I've seen people complain about Yukari's VA but I don't see the complaints. I think she's great too. Akihiko's still leaves me mixed, not a jab at the VA himself, but something doesn't click. I got used to it but it still was on my mind. Mitsuru and Junpei are basically one to one for me, especially Junpei he fucking nailed it. He got Junpei down to a tee, he stole the show for me. A part of me thinks it's cute to have the OG cast in some minor roles, kinda like a passing of the torch, but at the same time it feels like they were right there but just decided not to for some odd reason. Overall, Reload had me hooked once more. Can't stress enough how great the story of P3 is without getting into spoilers, but fuck, it's just great.

Social links were the new thing at the time of P3's release, adding a new layer to the gameplay. You had your high school life in the day, and the dungeon crawling at night. Social links were not only little side stories for characters both in your squad and randos in the world, but were tied in to the persona fusion mechanics as well. The higher the rank, the more XP you'd get from fusing in that arcana, and if you max the arcana out, you'd be able to fuse the ultimate persona of that arcana. It was an interesting mechanic to add in the game, and I think I like the mechanic in a way. It adds some depth to both the gameplay and the world as well. Interacting with not just your squad but people outside of it make the world feel bigger to me. As for the quality of them, well, P3 has some of the weaker SLs as a whole I'd argue, but it was the new thing so, hey. Not to say there wasn't ones I liked. I think the main cast had great links, and my all time favorite social link is here with the Sun arcana in Akinari Kamiki. But with every Kamiki or Yukari, there's that fat piece of shit and Kenji. Another cheeky thing that P3 did was that if you wanted to max all arcanas out, you were forced into a fucking harem. It's the biggest meme out of P3's SLs you and I both know it, it sucks, moving on. So, where does P3R take these links. Well, first off they feel the same overall, with some touchups and SOME big changes. The biggest is that for the first time in the series, every single rank is voiced, which I hope becomes the wave moving forward. It adds some depth on the social links here that I love. I think the VAs here were fine, Yong Yea was inoffensive which is all he needs to be, the fat fuck SL (I always forget his name) was goofy enough to find some entertainment out of it. Yuko's VA was great, I thought her SL was fine in the OG, but I like it a bit more now, she brings some character to it. And for the monkey's paw: you aren't forced into a harem with everyone, but at the cost of having the ability to break everyone's hearts in a cruel cruel manner. There's some SL's where you can keep it from prompting, but when you don't and you have to crush their spirit, it feels so fucking mean lmfao. Another thing they do here is add these social events for characters who never had a social link to begin with, like the male SEES members and a character who gets introduced later on. I like the new scenes they added with them a lot. I think they're great. Overall, the good is good and the bad is still bad. It is what it is.

Now the MEAT of the gameplay, fuck all that sissy pussy shit, you're a big man who wants that action, and none of that gay ass fatlus shit. Well, P3's gameplay is infamous, for better or for worse. Tartarus is a long long dungeon, it's always random to make it feel more fresh, but would always kinda blend together. Grindy isn't the word I'd say (to an extent), but tedious is. I'm sorry, but Tartarus is not the most fun thing to me. And the actual combat? Well, Persona 3 does this quirky little thing where you could only choose the action of the protagonist, and no one else. Everyone does their own action. Atlus wanted to emphasize each character's individuality, which I like in that way, but to play through it, ugh I have no fun with it. I get it, it ain't makin me have fun, but I get it. Granted you can kind of dictate it with tactics, but still, just never clicked with me, and probably won't. So, here we are in P3R, and hallelujah, we can control the party. It makes it much more bearable. As for tartarus, well, it's more bearable? I don't hate it? It's less tartarus changing too much, and more some some tweaks, gameplay changes, and some visual changes that make it less of a chore this time around. So, despite the party control changes, not much else is changed, but there are some interesting changes. Remember those little persona moves you could do in the original, like those special attacks with your personas? Well, they come back in the form of "Theurgy". Later in the game, everyone has this gauge that will fill up with certain actions. When filled, the character can do a special move to either buff the party or do a special attack. Theurgy on paper coulda made the game too easy but I think it works. I like it. Oh, right, difficulty. I played P3 on normal way back when, so I played it here, and despite what I just said, P3R is way easier than before. But here's the catch for me: P3 was harder but less fun, but Reload was more fun but much easier. I don't mind difficulty at all, that's not P3's issue, but if an easier time means a more fun time, then I think I'd take that here. Granted, my dumbass should've played on hard, and hard stuff is there, I still think Elizabeth is hard as shit. But some things that were hard aren't here. Play on hard if you've played P3 before.

Ah, the soundtrack. The most consistent good thing about Persona. All these games usually have a nice OST, each having a unique vibe to it. P3 has a nice soundtrack, there's some pop, hip hop, and rock elements to it, and it has this chill vibe. It's a vibe. P3R has some redone tracks here, and they're fine. They brought back Lotus Juice for these tracks too. I like Iwatodai Dorm's redone track a lot, When the Moon's Reaching Out Stars is great, Mass Destruction is a track that is so old to me and it's so boring already (I'm sorry, but vocal battle themes in this series age like milk for me. It's not that they're bad but they got old fast for me.), and here it has a weird quietness to it. It's fine but damn. The redone tracks at the end are fantastic by the way. Memories of You and Burn my Dread, fuuuuck man. As for the new tracks, MWAH. Color Your Night is the chillest fucking track ever, it's so good, and Lotus Juice sings in it too it's great. Full Moon, Full Life is an all-timer. Vanilla P4's intro was my favorite going in, and this one is inching closer to it. I fucking adore it, visually and musically. It's Persona 3, it's a good soundtrack, you and I know it. Nothing much to say.

The jump to the new 3D models is a blessing and a curse. The models look nice themselves, but some of the animations can be weak. Plus, they get over reliant with it at points, taking away from some of the scenes, especially at the end. Some moments loose some weight cuz of it. The style and UI changes are good too, I like the water stuff they got here n all dat. It's fine. As for the portraits, they're fine, but once again, some changes take away some of the charm. There is a certain Yukari portrait from the original that is gone, and wasn't redone, and it's a TRAVESTY. TRAVESTY. These are the brunt of my complaints though, which is a really good thing when you think about it, cuz if stuff as little as that is the majority of my complaints, then you know this remake is legit.

I have to say, it was so nice to jump back into Persona 3 once more with this remake. My love for the games feel rejuvenated, it's so nostalgic and nice to experience this again. I love Persona 3, warts and all, and this remake is so great. So, what version is best. Well, I hate to say it, and I will probably get shit on for it, but if you asked my honest opinion: I think I prefer this one over FES. Now, as I said earlier, play both versions if you can. I think the original Persona 3 is still worth playing (despite issues I have playing it). I think the argument about that is kind of lame, so it's not really worth having. Just play both.

Fuck this game for starting that annoying bathhouse trope in these games god it SUCKS STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.

Back in September of 2023, I decided to replay both Banjo games to see how much I still liked them. It had been around 10 years since I had played Kazooie since then, and 4 years since I'd last played Tooie, so I was excited to dive into both games. Well, as it turns out, I loved replaying both so much I decided to replay them directly after. I very rarely do that, so I just knew I had to bump both games to a 10. Well, after my whole review purge, I decided to replay these once again and rereview them all over again. Only 7 months later after playing them both twice before, I'm a madman I know (haha you won't get this reference because those reviews are now deleted). Anyways, just like before...I had a blast replaying Kazooie and consider it one of the best N64 games ever.

The first thing I'll get into are the controls and Banjo-Kazooie's moveset in general. I honestly think this game controls masterfully, Banjo and Kazooie have such a varied move set that flows well with each of the levels. The talon trot is a must in every level as it let's you go through each area that much faster. With the c buttons, it's also really easy to remember how to perform it too. In fact, I haven't played the game on anything but the N64 itself, but idk how I'd feel about playing it on another controller just cuz I find the N64 controller fits it perfectly lol. Besides the talon trot, you also have a roll attack, rat-a-tat rap which is an aerial move, golden feathers which you can use to turn invincible as long as you have them, red feathers which you can use to fly (and the flight in this game is more satisfying than Mario 64), the beak bomb which is an attack you can use while flying and more. All of this you unlock gradually while playing and is all used plenty through-out the game. You also have two power-ups that let you either traverse unsafe ground (wading boots) and the speedy shoes which, as the name implies, let's you go fast. Even the swimming in this game is pretty nice once you know how to use it. I've seen some people say it's awful because it's so clunky. Which, if you're not holding the R button then yeah totally, but if you are it's very nice and smooth as you have a breast-stroke and a paddle you can perform depending on what you need.

The game itself is incredibly charming, both aesthetically and comically. The world's all look lovely and is just full of that N64 Rare ware charm. When playing through a world, you would be hard pressed to not see a pair of googily eyes on an enemy or even the items (when the item explanation first pops up) and for how lighthearted this game is, it very much fits. That's not to say the dialogue is all light-hearted. It's not as dark as Tooie obviously but they still put in a couple of dirty jokes hear and there. The dialogue itself, while not nearly as funny as Tooie imo, its witty enough especially Gruntilda's dialogue.

Going into Gruntilda and her lair in general, both are fantastic. The lair is a tightly designed hub world that is super memorable, not just because of it being compact in size and easy to traverse, but because the whole way through Grunty insults you and eggs you on. Kazooie has way less dialogue than Tooie, and Grunty herself I find more menacing in that game, but when it comes to her insulting rhymes...they're easily the most memorable pieces of dialogue in the game. Even on this most recent playthrough, I was still hearing rhymes I've never heard before. Really makes me wonder just how many there are in total lol.

When it comes to the worlds themselves, they are excellent tightly designed levels just like Grunty's lair was. Mumbo's Mountain is the worst one imo, and that's just because of how small it is...which makes a ton of sense because it's the first world. All the rest are very enjoyable, with some of my favorites being Freezezey Peak, Clanker's Cavern and Click Clock Wood. Now you might be saying to yourselves, Clankers Cavern? Yeah, idk why but it might've been my favorite world this time around. I honestly don't have an issue with the swimming portions, I love the track that plays in it and the dank grimey atmosphere I find wonderful (which makes sense because I love Tooie and it has a lot of that). It feels like one of the more unique world settings next to Rusty Bucket Bay. Speaking of Rusty Bucket Bay, it has the infamous engine room area and yeah that's still my least favorite part pf the game. It's not TOO bad if you do that part right away, but I still died like 5 times this playthrough. I also died to Click Clock Wood very stupidly, those two levels even now can still get me as they're easily the two hardest in the game. Going back to the engine room tho, the reason it's so hated is because it's the only world with an instant death pit. In the N64 version, instant death means you lose all your notes as the game tracks a total note score in this version rather than keeping your notes when you die like in the Xbox version. This is also a small gripe I have, but only in these last two levels because I pretty much never die in any of the earlier ones.

The music in this game was done by Grant Kirkhope and he's absolutely legendary. He has a very distinct bouncy style to his music and it absolutely fits here with how goofy this game is. My favorite tracks in the game would have to be Rusty Bucket Bay, Spiral Mountain, Clanker's Cavern, and The Final Battle. The entire soundtrack is wonderfully though, and I especially love Grant's use of dynamic music. His work on Banjo Kazooie and Tooie, and DK64 show he's a big fan of it and it's perfect in these types of games.

Once you beat every single world, and have obtained enough notes and jiggies to progress, you enter Grunty's Furnace Fun. This is basically a giant quiz show that puts your knowledge to the test. It's very goofy and fitting for the type of game Banjo Kazooie is. The questions consist of listening to the voice of a character or song of a level and guessing who/what it is, random trivia, playing a mini-game from the main levels or a Grunty question. The grunty questions consist of trivia about Grunty herself that you must know to answer. To find these out in-game, you must hunt down her sister Brentilda, who is hidden in specific areas of the lair. You might think, meh I'll just look the answers to these online. But they're randomized per playthrough so you simply cannot do that. Luckily, with the joker card which let's you skip 2 spaces on the board, you can bypass these if you weren't able to find Brentilda. Same with the instant death skull spaces which are usually just a basic trivia question, but still are very nerve-wracking. After you get to the end of the board, you get a hilarious joke where Grunty makes her escape by forcing credits on you. After that though, it's actually time to fight her.

Before you fight Grunty, depending on how many collectables you have gotten, you can unlock consumable refills and even double health. Once you've gotten what you need, it's time fight Gruntilda herself. The final battle may honestly be in my top 20 fights ever, it's super good. It tests you on many of your moves you've learned through out the game and it has a killer boss theme to boot (as you know with my favorite songs portion). The end of it is super satisfying too, with the Jinjonator being summoned to defeat her. If there's any one thing I love more than Tooie, it's this final boss and cutscene. The Hag-1 is a fine enough final boss for that game, but it pales in comparison to Kazooie's final fight.

All in all, I'm glad I replayed this once again as it's still amazing and still one of my favorite games ever. Back in September, I stated I might love Tooie even more for the things it improved on and its expanded worlds, and yeah I probably do in the end. However, Kazooie has its own strengths , some even over Tooie's and it's still a must play as an N64 fan. Next up though is Tooie, and I simply cannot wait to replay it so look forward to that review coming soon!!

We sure do love Katamari.

Katamari Damacy Reroll already was already pretty awesome, but We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie goes the extra mile and sets out to be a "Best of Katamari". More levels, more variety, more random stuff to roll up, more story.

The entire plot of We Love Katamari revolves around Katamari Damacy being so universally acclaimed in-universe, that children, elders and even talking animals find enjoyment with the game and still want more, so they seek out the King and the Prince to get their wishes granted. Now the game doesn't advance by completing "main levels" anymore, like in Damacy; instead you can choose from a variety of levels available in each chapter. They're accessible by talking to the associated fans in the new hub world and the majority of fans have multiple levels of a reoccuring theme. Once a certain amount of levels are completed, the game will advance chapters and you'll get to see a cutscene of the King's backstory inbetween your rolling. This unlocks new fans on the plaza and the cycle continues.

Speaking of the King, Royal Reverie especially focuses on him by gradually unlocking special levels where you can play as him in the past. While this does sound very exciting at first, pretty much every of his levels is just a reskinned version of the normal levels. A bit disappointing, yet it's just meant as a nice bonus that was added in the Reroll version. His level in the school at night is awesome though, albeit quite difficult to complete if you want to complete it with all five instruments collected.

We Love Katamari Reroll is just a pleasant game to look at and to play. The colors are more vibrant, the remastered graphics have a certain polish to them, it runs in smooth 60 FPS (atleast in the PC version) and you can't get softlocked anymore. In terms of soundtrack, I actually found it to be pretty much on par with Damacy. To be honest, I was conflicted on it at first, since it's not as "quirky" as the direction in Damacy's OST, but it has grown on me! There's some good variety in there and you can customize the songs before each level. Sure, it doesn't have Lonely Rolling Star, but it has bangers like DISCO★PRINCE, Katamari on the Swing and Everlasting Love. Can't forget the new rendition of the King's theme either. The various environments across different levels like the ski resort, underwater sea and flower fields also feel really well crafted in terms of ambience and have a certain warmth to them. There's even a cool racing level, where each playable character has an individual little kart to match their own style! I love small details like that. With "each playable character", I'm talking about the 40 playable characters, which can be freely switched in the hub world after unlocking them in their respective levels. However, I need to say that unlocking all of them was surprisingly tedious at times, since you can only unlock one cousin at a time in levels where you can find multiple of them. Especially having to replay the 17 minute level four times just for rolling up a single character each time is not my definition of fun, so I'd really only recommend grinding out all the cousins if it's actually enjoyable to you, else just go for your favorites and pick up those you find along the way. Remember, this is all optional. Games are supposed to be fun, not grindy.

I'm glad to have discovered the Katamari games. Damacy Reroll still feels great in it's own way, even after completing the sequel. In a discussion, @Wollom brought up a comparison between Takahashi's Katamari duology and the Super Mario Galaxy duology and I found it to be quite fitting in some key aspects. The first entry of each has that unique vibe and atmosphere to it, while the second one has the better levels and polish, while also retaining the charm of the original game - even if it doesn't hit quite the same there. Of course you can't universally compare these two series, since they're not even the same genre. Apples and oranges. I still found it to be a nice observation, considering the Galaxy games are some of my favorite 3D platformers.

Now something unrelated to Katamari. There really have been a lot of five stars handed out by me lately, so I wanted state again that I don't just usually hand them out like candy - many of the games I played recently have just been quite enjoyable, that's all. There also was the case of Rexaura, but I don't want to dwell on my rating system too much here and needlessly justify myself. After all, I'm reviewing games for fun, not as a job. Thanks for reading.

Cookies are pretty damn great, aren’t they? They are a nice, delicious treat that is good to have every once and a while, and there are so many different kinds of cookies out there that you could have! Snickerdoodle, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and even the good ol’ classic, chocolate chip, all great choices. And you know what’s even better than cookies in general? Why, video games about cookies, of course! Or at least, I would assume they are, cause I haven’t played any games relating to cookies myself. That is, except for one off the top of my head, one that has been nagging at the back of my mind for quite some time now. So please, ladies and gentlemen, grab your favorite type of cookie and join me, as we take a look at Yoshi’s Cookie today.

When it comes to Yoshi’s first outing into the puzzle genre, being with the game simply called Yoshi, it was one of the most mid-puzzle games that I had ever played in my life. Sure, it was fun for a good couple of minutes, and seeing all the different types of Yoshis was adorable, but it didn’t offer anything more than that for me to consider playing it for more than 10 minutes at a time. But hey, I guess it was successful enough to where Nintendo figured they may as well keep the puzzle train rolling, and they would do this by completely transforming another game called Hermetica when it came to consoles. As a result, we would get Yoshi’s Cookie, which when compared to Yoshi is… yet another middle-of-the-road puzzler. It was still a good game, and it has the same charm and appeal as Yoshi for the NES did, but it also suffers from the same problem as that game at the same time.

The graphics are pretty appealing, being pretty bright and colorful not just in terms of the cookies, but also the locations and characters that you see, even if they are ripped straight from Mario World, the music is good, being pretty upbeat, yet fast enough to where it really gets you in the mood to do some real puzzling, the control is… somewhat odd, but you can get used to it pretty quickly and get to puzzling just fine, and the gameplay is also pretty confusing on the surface level, but once you properly get into it, you’ll be clearing those cookies out like no one else can.

The game is a tile-matching puzzle game, where you take control of NOT Yoshi, but Mario instead, because that makes plenty of sense, go through many different stages and rounds through plenty of different locations, move around the cookies in a grid to match up the same cookies to clear them from the grid, have new rows of cookies come from both the top and right of the screen so that you can have better luck at clearing out the cookies, and wonder why the hell you are still playing the game after, say, one or two worlds of doing this shit. A lot of it is what you would expect from your typical puzzle game, with some twists added in to make it a little more original, but it doesn’t really offer too much else from what you are initially presented. That being said, it can still be fun.

Like with Yoshi, this game does offer you the choice of what round you want to take on, along with how fast the cookies come in and what music plays throughout the game, so you can make it so that you can either have a complete and easy playthrough of simple cookie matching, or one of the most fast and intense session of cookie matching that you will ever have in your sad, pathetic life, and it works well enough on all the settings, although for me, the slow and medium settings are a liiiiiiitle too slow, especially if you are going to go in from the beginning. Aside from that though, also like with Yoshi, there are several other modes that you can try out just in case you get bored with the main mode, such as a VS Mode, where you can compete against another player or a CPU, and a Puzzle Mode, where you are given a set grid of cookies to work with, and you just have to make sure you clear them all out. Like with the main mode, these modes are pretty typical for this kind of game, and they work well enough, giving you enough to work and have fun with, especially when you have a friend along with you.

Unfortunately though, despite all of that, this game does suffer from the exact same problem that Yoshi did, which drags it down way too much: it gets boring after a while. Sure, the game can be fun for a good little bit, I would say around 10 minutes or so, but there isn’t much else here that would make me stick with it for more than just that. You could get more out of the game with a friend, but then again, I’m pretty sure you all wouldn’t play the game for that much longer. I wish I could say more to its benefit, but really, there isn’t anything more I can say, as it isn’t as addicting as Tetris or Dr. Mario, and the concept isn’t inventive or inviting enough to keep players matching for hours on end like they envisioned it to.

Overall, despite the fun enough concept and having plenty of modes to play around with, Yoshi’s Cookie is yet another “whatever” puzzler, one that can provide plenty of fun for a good bit, with or without a friend, but not only is there nothing here to make me wanna play through it for hours on end, but there’s also nothing here to make me want to come back either. I would recommend it for those who loved Yoshi, as well as those who are big puzzle fanatics, but for those who aren’t into either of those, then you are much better off with any other puzzle game aside from this. Kinda sucks though that this would be the last Yoshi puzzle game, as I think they could potentially make a really great one if they had a fun enough concept, but that probably will never be the case. And no, I don’t count Tetris Attack as a Yoshi puzzle game. Just because it has Yoshis in it doesn’t automatically make it a Yoshi game, despite what childhood you wants to think.

Game #489

Ya know, I was gonna start this review with my usual personal story opener. I was gonna talk about how I was interested in this game because of Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play that had just come out. I was gonna talk about how I bought a copy at TooManyGames 2019 and saw Thrown Controllers live. I was gonna talk about how I was going to have Chugga sign my copy and I was disappointed in the end that I missed my chance while I was there. So, for this to be my first mention of the guy in any of my reviews, and I'm putting this review out after all the stuff that's come out in the past week and a half? Probably the worst timing imaginable since I had planned this opener from the start lol. (Edit: with the recent statement Emile put out, I have decided to delete the part saying I'm done with him.)

Sorry to start this on a negative note. I figured it needed to be said since I've had this on my mind for the past week and a half. Either way, on to the actual game. I did play like a half hour of this game back in 2019 but dropped it for whatever reason. It was one of my most hyped games in my backlog and while I don't absolutely love it like some people, I did think it was pretty great overall!

Let's start with the story of Chrono Trigger. It's a typical time travel story but it's executed very well! Throughout the game, you're traveling through various different time periods, meeting various different characters along the way. It's light hearted and really picks up in the last third of the game when shit goes down. While the story overall is executed well, flawless in pacing too, I can't say I loved it as really nothing about it blew my mind. Future square games, while maybe more imperfect in their execution of their stories (like FF7 or FFX) I enjoy way more just because they're way more impactful to me. That's not to say the story is bad in Chrono Trigger, it definitely is not, it's just not mind-blowing like I was expecting from such a well regarded JRPG.

Onto the cast, I really liked most of the characters! They all have little arcs that come to play in the story and those are my favorite bits of the story, just seeing the characters interact and grow. My favorites were Frog, Robo and Lucca..they just felt the most impactful of them all. My only issue and it's another bigger one sadly, I really wish there were more scenes of the entire party interacting and more specific character scenes in general. Once you go through a characters arc, you don't really see much from then again unless you have them in your party during a big story moment. There are little scenes here and there that do involve specific characters but I really wanted more of that. The best parts of the character development and worldbuilding and honestly they were maybe my favorite parts of the game as a whole, were the endgame optional side quests. Most of them were super great in fleshing out the characters more, I just wish that happened more in the actual story. The one where you have Robo help Fiona for 400 years, and you learn about something that happened in Lucca's past and Robo comforting her...god it was so good. But I wanted more of that! So while I did really enjoy the cast as a whole, I just wish they were more prominent in the story and not just tied down to who's in your party. Because sadly someone like Marle I completely forgot about for a while cuz I didn't find her fun to use so she wasn't really involved in the story. Also in regards to the main "villian", Lavos. They're alright..it's just a big towering obstacle in your way but I never loved it as it obviously doesn't have any dialogue and thus I never felt any type of connection to them compared to other JRPG's I've played. Everyone kept talking about Lavos but the being itself didn't do much for me besides having a cool design.

The presentation is honestly mind blowing for a Super Nintendo game. I did play the DS version so idk if the visuals were totally the same or not but what I played here was goddamn impressive. The little animations each characters have are crazy, especially if you compare it to something like Final Fantasy VI which came out a year prior to this. The areas are very rich in detail and the world as whole, while being relatively small in scope, felt alive because of the amazing visuals. Along with the presentation is the great OST. Now I won't lie and say I'm in love with the OST as a whole as of now, but each time I listen to it I'm liking it more and more and it truly is great. The standout themes for me were Frog's Theme, Schala's Theme,and Secret of the Forest among several others.

The combat is another thing I think was super well done. It's ATB like the Final Fantasy games from 4 onwards but in Chrono Trigger's case, positioning of the party plays a part. Instead of the characters being lined up all in a row, depending on encounters they can be in different postions on the screen. The character's moves can then take a part in this as some only hit enemies when they're close to you or some multitarget enemies when they're bunched up. I thought this was really fun and added something new to the combat system we all know. That plus tech moves which are specific moves that involve two more more characters when their ATB gauge is full, it adds a lot of variety to the combat. There is a ton of tech moves btw, with it being between every single character and I don't think I even unlocked them all, I doubt I even performed half of them. Gives the game a bit of replayabiliity I'd say.

Something else that makes the game replayable in my eyes is the addition of NG+ and the different endings this game has. I got the Beyond Time ending but I believe there's around 10 endings to get. You get these by defeating Lavos at different points in the game. The fact you can technically beat the game at any time, is not only awesome but with the addition of ng+, makes it feel worth it to get every ending. That plus the game is like 20 hours on a first playthrough so it's a short JRPG overall. This was also one of the first instances of NG+ in a game too which is so cool. Like I said, I got one ending but that's it. I plan on going back to get all the other endings eventually and do that NG+ only extra dungeon and final boss added in the DS version.

Speaking of something else added in the DS version, along with doing all the normal side quests which were great, I also did the Lost Sanctum. This, in my opinion is a pretty crappy addition to the game. It gives you good items but the whole thing is just meaningless fetch quests, going up the same mountain like 20 times and fighting some mediocre bosses. It's not worth the hassle and story-wise I just don't care at all. There was also this arena the DS version added too and I didn't mess with it much, didn't seem like my thing.

So yeah, overall the game is pretty great! I feel like this is a prime example of a jack of all trades but master of none game. Everything is really solid and well polished but nothing is super exceptional except for the music. Personally, I prefer more ambitious games that may be messier in execution..tho I also love Xenoblade 1 and relecting on that game, it's also pretty safe. Maybe chalk it up to when I played it then, I probably would have absolutely adored this game if I played it as a kid..but as of now, I just think it's a great classic game that does deserve the praise it gets! Anyways, now I'm wondering how I'll feel about Chrono Cross as that one seems more split. Ah well, guess we'll see!

For those who are very familiar with some of the most noteworthy titles in video game history, then you would know that, generally, the Mario franchise is the one that not only catapulted Nintendo into the limelight for many years to come, but it also managed to revive the industry as a whole at one of its lowest points, making sure that the series would live on and go strong all the way up to this very day. However, what many may not realize is that, without the original Donkey Kong, we never would’ve gotten to this point at all. While it will never be as popular and beloved, the Donkey Kong series may just be one of the most important in Nintendo’s entire catalog, with the original three arcade titles still holding up pretty well to this day, even with the… weird changes that it would make with each entry (still not quite sure if Donkey Kong 3 was a real game).

However, after the third game, and aside from a few Game & Watch titles here and there, the Donkey Kong series would kind of just… vanish from the face of the Earth, going on an indefinite hiatus for an entire decade (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). It makes sense, seeing that Mario was now taking the spotlight, but it is still kind of weird to think about. Thankfully though, after this period of nothing, the series would eventually bounce back in two big ways, starting off with the natural evolution for those original arcade games, Donkey Kong for the Game Boy.

Upon seeing the cover of this game and reading the title of the game, you may not initially think anything of it. You would probably suspect that the game is just a port of the original arcade game, with not much else of value to offer then just another portable version of Donkey Kong. Hell, the game even opens up with the four levels from the original arcade game as if to drive that suspicion home. However, upon completing the last of these levels, that’s when DK decides to flip the script, kidnaps Pauline once again, and Mario sets off to save her once again. This is where the game truly begins, giving you a lot more to experience and enjoy then ever before, making what I would consider to be the best classic Donkey Kong game ever made. Of course, it isn’t perfect by any means, and there are some issues that I do somewhat dread whenever I go back to this game, but for the most part, this does remain one of the best classic DK games, as well as one of the best games you could get on the original Game Boy.

The story is exactly what you would expect, with DK kidnapping Pauline and going to the extreme to keep you from reaching her, so it is up to Mario to travel all around the world to do just that, which is about as basic of a plot as you would expect, but it is one that is fine enough for the type of game that it sets up. The graphics are Game Boy graphics, but all of the sprites for the characters, locations you travel to, and the animations are incredibly detailed and charming, making the game a joy to look at all the way through, the music is wonderful, having plenty of classic and new tracks to listen to, each of them fitting both the situation at hand and the area that you are in as you keep going, the control is about what you would expect from a classic DK game, but it does add in a little more to where it doesn’t feel like just more of the same, and the game is mostly what you would expect from a classic DK game as well, but adds just enough in both the variety and content to where it ends up being much more enjoyable as a result.

The game is a 2D puzzle platformer, with the gameplay being divided into three different types of gameplay segments. For all of them though, you take control of Mario once again, go through many, MANY different levels all throughout plenty of different environments, jump over plenty of hazards, or even use tools to help get rid of said hazards, such as by throwing enemies at each other or by using the good ol’ fashioned hammer, gather plenty of items to not only help you proceed forward, but also give you the chance at getting extra lives, and take on DK himself in plenty of scenarios to get that extra shot at finally rescuing Pauline… only for her to be snatched from your grasp every time. Most of it should feel pretty similar for those who played the original DK arcade game, and it may not seem like it offers much new for those who are familiar with that game, but as you keep playing, there is quite a bit added here to make the game stand out more from its predecessors in plenty of ways.

In terms of Mario himself, he still controls how you would expect him to in most cases, but he also has plenty of new moves to his arsenal that you can use to your advantage. He can now pick up things and throw them, he can do backflips, somersaults, handstands, and he can fling himself on wires to reach higher places, making him much more capable and versatile than ever before. Not only that, but each of the levels in the game, no matter how far into the game it is, manages to either introduce something new to the formula to shake things up, or integrates said elements into the gameplay to make for some unique challenges and puzzles, which, for the most part, are pretty fun to tackle.

For most of the game, the levels consist primarily of puzzle stages, where your main goal is to simply get this oversized key to the door located somewhere into the level, and while that may sound easy enough to do, there are plenty of elements and hazards present in these stages that make this much harder to accomplish. These take up most of the levels in the game, and for a good majority of them, they are pretty damn fun, not only being very satisfying to clear as you jump or climb through all these obstacles, but also take advantage of the new gimmicks present to propel you forward towards your goal. For those of you that would rather prefer the old style of Donkey Kong over this though, have no fear, because there are also plenty of Battle Levels, which consist of you needing to reach the top where Pauline is by dodging plenty of obstacles, and these can be pretty fun to take on as well. And finally, there are the boss fights against DK, which just mostly consist of you taking any barrel you can get your hands on and throw them at him, which can get boring, but again, there are plenty of different elements present to make these boss fights varied enough to not get too boring.

Despite all of the good things this game has going for it though, there are some things about it that does drag it down from being perfect. For one thing, the game is WAY too long. The game has 101 stages, all of them being spread over 9 different worlds, and while a good number of these levels can be beaten pretty easily, there are also a good amount of levels that can take much longer and be much harder than before. Sure, that does give you plenty to do in the game, which I am all for, but there is a point where it feels like way too much, and every time I reach, like, the seventh or eighth world, I am always thinking to myself “God damn, how am I not done yet?” Not only that, but some of the levels themselves can be a huge pain in the ass, integrating elements that make going through them much more annoying rather than fun or satisfying, making going through them a complete slog whenever they do come up. This doesn’t happen all too often, thank god, but whenever it does, it truly does suck, and I never look forward to these levels whenever I go back to play the game again.

Overall, despite it lasting a little too long and having several levels that can just go fuck themselves, Donkey Kong for the Game Boy is a pretty great time, one that brings back the classic DK formula in the perfect way, while adding more and more to it that make it quite a surprise and a must-have for any owner of that good ol’ grey brick. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of the Donkey Kong series, as well as those who are fans of puzzle platformers in general, because trust me, this game will give you more than enough to have fun with for the amount of time that it lasts for. And hey, with this new game coming out, we would also eventually get a brand new sub-series out of it that is still going onto this day, so that is pretty cool. Or at least, it would be if, you know…. they would just get rid of the damn toys.

Game #486

Yakuza/Like a Dragon has been my favorite gaming series since a few years now and naturally I've been very hyped for Infinite Wealth. So much that I didn't watch any trailer past the first 10-minute reveal of the game and muted Yakuza related keywords on social media. I usually never do this for a game, but the urge to see Kiryu's fate by myself was strong, since that's a key selling point for this entry.

The new characters are great and became some of my favorites in the series, but it was also nice to see how Infinite Wealth expanded on the previously established characters from Yakuza: Like a Dragon in meaningful ways. This is especially noticeable with Ichiban himself, since he really gets to shine in many different aspects here - whether he is serious about the things that matter the most to him or if he is just goofing around with his friends, he just feels like a great guy to be around overall. There's something about him that just feels so human and real.

I always felt like the combat in Yakuza 7 was a bit janky, but I excused it since it was RGG's first attempt at creating a turn-based game. Fortunately, Infinite Wealth follows up on the foundation that's already there and adds some tactical elements like moving during turns, guaranteed crits when attacking from behind and combo attacks with party members. It really makes a big difference and makes the combat flow a whole lot better. Balancing is also just right for the most part and the DLC classes have good basegame integration this time around. No more solo-ing bosses with the comically overpowered Head Trauma move in the previous mainline game.

Story is enjoyable for the most part. There are some plotholes and other minor nitpicks that bother me, even so it's still an enjoyable ride overall with some good supporting characters and villains along the way. Pacing is a bit wonky in a way that there are some instances where you have to follow a very linear route across half the map to get to your destination while avoiding random encounters left and right. This makes sense with the narrative context in those situations, but it's rather dull from a gameplay perspective, considering you just have to beeline from A to B without being able to do anything else for that time (without prior warning). It's not a major flaw, since it only occurs a few time in the game, but what's really bugging me is that the narrative unfortunately has a lot of wasted potential, keeping it from being one of the best ones in the series. Some seemingly "major" characters are especially undercooked, which is a shame given their assigned roles in the story.

Now for some positivity again, one of the biggest highlights in Infinite Wealth for me is Kiryu's involvement. Having to come to terms with his own mortality, he decides to seek out friends and locations from the past one more time. It's really cool to see so many returning characters from the Kiryu games and what they're up to now; the little flashbacks to past Yakuza games you can see at various points scattered across the cities are also neat fanservice. While this aspect falls pretty flat for those who got into the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it feels like a nice reward for all long-term fans and might even motivate some of the newer fans to go back to the Kiryu saga!

Overall, Infinite Wealth feels like a big step up from Like a Dragon into the right direction and is worth your time. It's not just a good game for Yakuza fans, but for JRPG fans in general with the amount of effort put into this game. Now onto Persona 3 Reload, another game I've been looking forward to a long time!

Thanks for reading.