With Anonymous;Code being announced in 2015, rewritten at least six times, delayed even more, and released in 2022, it's honestly impressive that it came out as good as it did.

While I wouldn't say it's in my top three of the series, it was still a fun ride. The two lead characters are fun and the story is overall good, even if it doesn't fully explain some of its concepts and fails to fully realize its potential. A;C doesn't have a lot of the slice of life stuff that made the other entries so memorable, but then again I can also understand why they would cut them thanks to the games core gameplay mechanic.

In Anonymous;Code, both you and the main character Pollon share save slots. Pollon has the ability to "save" and "load" like he's in a video game. He'll make his own saves that you can't delete or save over and you have him reload his saves in order to get past problems. You can also have him reload at certain point to see optional dialogue and scenes.

I can only imagine how much of a nightmare it was to write around this concept. Going through half a dozen rewrites and seven years of development hell started making sense as I interacted with its narrative. This is why I think they've carved out a lot of the typical slice of life stuff and character routes from this game. Having the "Hacking Trigger" system in these moments would have Pollon create too many saves and it would be incredibly hard to keep track of.

While I won't spoil the main story, I will say I think the narrative started to fall apart a bit towards the end, partially because it starts to be crushed by the weight of its own concept. I was always interested exactly what "World Layers" would entail, but I think the overall reveal is a tad disappointing. Another thing I was hoping for was more connections to the rest of the series, but there's really not a lot of that. Due to there not being slice of life moments, a lot of the principal cast feel underdeveloped, which is a shame.

On a final note, the score by Takeshi Abo is fantastic as always. He's easily become one of my favorite game composers and this has some of his best stuff.

Overall a pretty fun time that could've been better, but I also see the trajectory of how it arrived to us. If you're a fan, it's definitely worth looking at especially with some of the stuff it adds to the greater lore of the series.

When it comes to these indie games directly inspired by dead franchises, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk almost feels like it's in a league of it's own. This game feels like some long lost sequel to Jet Set Radio Future that came out three years after it. It satisfied all of my expectations as a JSR fan.

BRC ditches a lot of what made Jet Set Radio tedious; you have infinite spray paint, health regen, selectable music, levels are big and open, and there's no jank platforming. It doesn't have some of the small and narrow levels that JSRF had, instead the larger levels all feel well designed (which I can't say about some other JSR inspired indie games >.>).

The gameplay has a greater combo focus, giving you the option to manual on the ground to extend them. You get three gameplay styles, BMX, inline skates, and skateboards, but they all pretty much feel the same save for some minor differences in grind speed and manuals.

BRC's soundtrack is fantastic. Of course the three tracks contributed by Hideki Naganuma are bangers, but all of the others are great too. Some of them did get kinda grating, but thankfully you can pick a song whenever from the phone menu.

It's not perfect, I think it could really use some quality of life features. Being able to track how many collectables you have, and turning off heat level, just to name a few. The map in this is just as bad as JSR and they really should give you a way to actually look at it and mark taxi poles and toilets. The phone menu is kinda clunky. But overall an amazing experience, I hope this team gets to make another at some point

EDIT: Thanks to a recent update on 10-19, they have now added map markers for toilets and taxi signs along with the option to shuffle music and see how many collectables you have left in an area meaning they've fixed the biggest problems I had with the game

SO IF YOU'RE NOT A FAN OF THE WORDS:

- PEAK FICTION
- GOAT
- RAW
- FIRE

THEN CLICK OFF THE REVIEW, BECAUSE THOSE ARE GONNA COME UP 50 TIMES IN HERE MAN

Now in all seriousness, Final Fantasy XVI was a game that I was both excited for, and apprehensive about. I loved FFXIV's Heavensward expansion and was excited to see what some of the staff from there was cooking up, but deciding to take the series into a full action game approach felt strange. However I chose to remain optimistic and the good news is, it's an incredible ride from start to finish.

From the gameplay side of things, everything felt really responsive and I loved how all of your abilities worked together. Anytime I would get a new ability and think "Yeah I don't see a use for that", I'd talk with someone and see how they incorporate it into their setup and find new use for it. There's a ton of synergy with all of your tools which gives you freedom to set up anyway you want. The last game I played with "active" combat was Tears of the Kingdom, so it was nice going into a game that actually felt responsive when you fight enemies.

I also loved all of the boss fights except for maybe one or two of the large monster types (dragons), which for an action game is amazingly consistent. The reason why I don't replay most action games is because I think of the set of bosses in them that are just no fun (for example almost any non human bosses in DMC5), but here I could see myself doing an eventual NG+ run. The large Eikon fights were great too and are some of the coolest and most insane sequences I've seen in a game. Each one felt intense in a different way.

I don't really agree with the takes that this should've been a straight action game or that the RPG elements are too thin, I think both the action and RPG parts of the game work well together. Like yeah equipment just feel like straight stat upgrades, but that's how most equipment upgrades in RPGs are. Leveling up feels substantial, but you can also get through enemies many levels above you if you're good enough. Most of the complaints I've seen levied against FFXVI explaining why it's not a "real RPG" are arbitrary rules that would straight up disqualify other RPG series like YS and Kingdom Hearts. FFXVI is an action RPG through and through, and some people need to accept that.

Also really liked the sidequests too, when I play a JRPG what I want from the sidequests are bits of lore, world building, and character moments and this has plenty of them. Don't really care if the objectives and rewards are simple, I get plenty of value out of them. I'm someone who does every sidequest in games like this and these are definitely on the better end, I'd say they're even better than like 80% of the sidequests in the Trails series.

This games music is incredible. Masayoshi Soken has become one of my favorite game composers in recent years and this is some of his best work. It fires on all cylinders when it needs to, and the more calm and somber tracks are incredibly pleasant. Was also glad that there was plenty of variety in the OST too, the boss tracks in this game go pretty crazy.

From a visual standpoint the game is gorgeous, this is the first time I'm truly glad I got an OLED TV because some of the sequences are jaw dropping. This truly feels like the first "true" next gen (or I guess current gen) game that I've played. Also I love things like the damage numbers (it's cool when they show up in cutscenes) and the QTEs, I feel like they add to the overall experience.

I also really liked the story, I can get why some people might not like the direction that it goes in but personally I love this shit a lot. This isn't some kind of "Kingdom Hearts nonsense" like you see people try to say online, it's some good ass Final Fantasy stuff. You can tell this is the Heavensward writer too, and I really think they did some of their best work here.

This games cast is fantastic too, even outside of the main party I loved all of the Hideaway NPCs. Probably has one of my favorite side casts in the series easily which surprised me since you don't have a traditional party in this game. Clive is a fantastic main character too, he's not someone who's constantly brooding but instead is incredibly compassionate and willing to help. He walks the line of being a badass fighter and a bit of a himbo, kinda reminded me of Kiryu from the Yakuza series. His arc in the game was easily my favorite.

While I try not to engage with weird, bad faith criticism online some of the stuff I've seen around this games story is weird. Yes it does go into darker topics like slavery, which is a big theme of the game, it's not something that's ever "dropped" like some people are saying. It's a theme that remains all the way to the end, especially in sidequests, and the game handles it in a respectful way. Active Time Lore is also something that I've seen criticism around for some reason. Games have had in game encyclopedias for decades and this just adds a context sensitive button. ATL is never used as a writing "crutch" and is something you can never engage with and understand the story just fine. I opened it in a cutscene once in the 70hrs that I played, and the rest of the time I'd check stuff with the NPC at the base.

Another complaint I don't really agree with a lot of the ones regarding Jill? I think she has a really great arc (although I will say it's resolved a bit too early and because of that gives her less to do) and she has some of the best scenes in the game. I really like how her and Clive play off each other when they work together. The rest of this games female cast is also pretty good, with plenty of great NPCs that are expanded through sidequests. Why is her name Mid when she's one of the best?

Overall the few complaints I have regarding the game really didn't hold back my time with it. Sure the game could use some more enemy variety, but it's not something I'm gonna cry over. Sure the dungeons/stages are hyper linear, but they're made to be replayed over and over so that's understandable. The sidequests have kinda simple objectives? Well I'm learning more about the world and the characters that inhabit it so I don't mind.

Square Enix, CBU3, and all of the development staff really made something special here, and I'm glad I had a chance to play it. Now time to listen to the song Kenshi Yonezu made for the game and cry myself to sleep.

Let me start this off by saying I did not like Breath of the Wild. While I found the exploration to be good at times, everything outside of that was either a chore or incredibly underwhelming. I apprehensively went into Tears of the Kingdom hoping it’d be some sort of improvement, and it was but not in the ways I was hoping as it’s still plagued by a lot of the issues from its predecessor.

The most notable change in this game, are your abilities which are by and far way better and more interesting than the ones in BOTW. Rather than having two boring and underpowered bombs and an almost useless ice power, being able to fuse stuff together is incredibly satisfying. Allowing you to build any manner of contraptions and vehicles introduces a level of creative freedom that was great. Just a quick look online and you can see just how creative some people have gotten with these. Outside of those the ascend and recall abilities feel a bit more situational, but they both feel like they have utility. These powers are my favorite change because the way they let you interact with the world is so much more interesting.

Being able to build almost anything your creativity can come up with, also feeds into the thing that I liked in BOTW, and still like, which is exploring the world. It’s still a lot of fun and figuring out how to get somewhere with your make shift vehicles never stopped being fun. Although the sky islands which were prominently advertised in the game are easily the most disappointing part. There's way too few of them and they all look the same. Most of the time I just used the shrines up there as fast travel points to dive onto other parts of the surface. Really felt like wasted potential. The depths were also interesting for the first hour or so down there, but just became a chore to explore after that. At the very least adding caves to the overworld was a great decision, it adds a whole new bit of depth to this land I've already been through.

The new abilities are also used in the Shrines and while they were something that I loathed doing in the previous game they’re a little better here. I still think they’re a little too simple at the end of the day, but giving you a more interesting set of tools really helps. Combat Shrines also felt way less prevalent and instead positioned themselves as combat challenges that surprisingly I didn’t mind, which was nice considering those in the original were the ones I loathed.

Unfortunately, this is kinda where my praise for the game is going to end except for specific parts. I mentioned the combat shrines above and while those in general were better there’s a part of them that wasn’t, and that would be the combat itself. Now keep in mind when I criticize the combat I’m not saying I want this game to be an action game like Devil May Cry or Metal Gear Rising, but instead I want it to at least match up to Wind Waker and Twilight Princess (I’d even go as far to say that the N64 games feel better depending on how I feel). It is absolutely BAFFLING that they changed nothing about the combat in this game from the previous. It still feels terrible a majority of the time and the fact that I haven’t seen a lot of criticism about it is driving me insane. Hitboxes still feel like bizarre suggestions rather than concrete concepts. Sometimes you’ll get hit by something that definitely shouldn’t have hit you and other times you won’t get hit by an attack that should have. The timing for flurry rush is still as inconsistent as the last one, you’ll get it if you dodge when the weapon isn’t even in the same zipcode as yourself. Here's a clip from a streamer that shows what I mean. And other times you can dodge perfectly and get nothing. Link still feels stiff when dodging and it just contributes to the whole thing feeling bad to play. Enemy variety is at least way better here, even if it can still feel like there's too few.

Then there’s the elephant in the room, weapon durability. I didn’t like it in BOTW, and I still don’t like it here! The durability defenders are surely preparing to type out their long diatribe explaining why it’s good, but I don’t care. I don’t think it adds anything to this game. It’s not something that encourages me to “use more of my tool set”, instead it makes me fumble through menus in the middle of combat anytime my equipment breaks, and this games menu system is horrible and clunky with how many items you have to sift through. This game will sometimes give you cool and unique weapons, but those can also still break. It doesn’t encourage me to use them at all, why would I want to break the Fierce Deity Sword? Also, the Master Sword having durability is still the dumbest thing about these two games.

Going up to the release of this game, both games media and people that played the leaked copy kept proclaiming that “Zelda Dungeons are back!” I was disappointed to find out that everyone that said this was just lying out of their ass. These are still the same, bad divine beasts from BOTW but now have unique aesthetics and actual interesting bosses. They’re still way too open and simple for me to enjoy them and just being able to circumvent their attempts at puzzles with your standard abilities is just sad. People always tell me that when they “cheese” a puzzle they feel like a genius, but I feel the opposite. I just feel empty brute forcing my way through these puzzles.

Another problem I had with Breath of the Wild was that its narrative was incredibly undercooked, which is something that’s at least a few steps better in Tears of the Kingdom but it’s still not ideal. Now I’m not saying a Zelda game needs a big and in-depth story, but the last two entries have leaned into having more of a story and if they’re going that direction then I’d want it to be good at least. Unfortunately, due to the open nature of the game, it really falls flat. They don’t know what order you’re doing the dungeons in, so everyone of them opens the exact same and ends with the exact same cutscene with slight differences. It’s just tiring. Thankfully the Memories you can find are better, if you look up a guide to get them in order. Just be sure to get them after the dungeons because doing them before makes the story make way less sense in its structure.

One of the most surprising things about this game however, was the final sequence. After the ending of Breath of the Wild felt like a wet fart, this games ending felt like such a monumental improvement I was impressed. It honestly might have one of my favorite final sequences in the entire series. Definitely felt like a good way to cap off my playthrough and left me feeling pretty great about my overall time despite the issues I had.

Tears of the Kingdom was a fun game that I don’t think I’ll ever replay. Not really a fan of this style of game that they're making the Zelda series into, and if they continue on this path then I'll probably just skip it but I also have no idea where they'd take this formula past this game.

Oh and also Nintendo Switch games should not be $70. It sucks that Nintendo got away with it and the worst part is that their games never go on sale.

If Xenoblade 3 was like a well-made meal, then Future Redeemed is like a nice desert to go along with it. It’s a fantastic expansion that answers some questions, asks even more, and is chock full of the kinda of fanservice that fans of the series will love.

In my review of Xenoblade 3 I expressed that one of my favorite things about the base game was that it mostly stood on its own, free from being overburdened by references to the previous entries and was able to highlight its themes and core cast because of it. While the base game was like this, Future Redeemed is VERY different. Instead, if you’re someone who’s only played through Xenoblade 3, there’s a good chance that you’re gonna end up lost. This expansion doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the first two, you will be spoiled on them.

Two of the party members are previous main characters, Shulk and Rex. It was honestly a lot of fun seeing both of them in the same game where they can interact with each other and seeing how both of them have grown up since the endings of their respective games was great. You also have their children Glimmer and Nikol who get some nice stuff in the sidequests but also don’t get a terrible amount of development, but that’s understandable with this being a short side game. Lastly there’s the main character Matthew and his companion A. I really liked both of them with Matthew being a bit of a hot head and A being more rational. Future Redeemed spends time on these two the most so they end up being pretty fleshed out.

The story itself of Future Redeemed is a prequel story, something that I was initially worried about but luckily it ended up being something worthwhile. A few of the lingering questions from the base game are answered here and there’s some stuff that comes up toward the end that got me really excited for the future of whatever they do. Won’t spoil what comes up, but this works as a nice compliment to the main game. I don’t really agree with all of the people saying “this is what Xenoblade 3 should’ve been” because the reason WHY this expansion is so good is that it follows up and expands on the themes from the main game, which were well done from the beginning. I seriously don’t think I would’ve enjoyed Xenoblade 3 if it was 100+ hours of references.

Future Redeemed has several small gameplay changes that keep it feeling fresh coming from the base game. The biggest one being the Affinity System, which is a simplified version of how Affinity worked in Xenoblade 2. By exploring the world, defeating enemies, and completing side quests you gain Affinity Points that let you upgrade and unlock new abilities for the characters. It’s a system that works well for the length of the DLC, because I don’t think I’d enjoy it being the backbone of a large game. The new combo enders each pair get are also neat and helps free up more space for different arts since you don’t do any real character building in this one. There are also some nice QoL changes that make exploring a bit more fun that I wish was in the base game.

Overall Future Redeemed is a great expansion to Xenoblade 3 and also is a fantastic send off to this part of the series. It left me satisfied and also excited for whatever Monolith Soft does in the future. I’m feelin’ full of beans.

When I first beat Xenoblade 2, while I liked it, I thought that parts of it were rushed (probably to meet the Switch launch year) and that for Monolith Soft's next game, if they had the time to really let it cook, then it'd probably end up as one of my favorite games of all time. Xenoblade 3 came out in 2022 and that's exactly what happened, it's everything I wanted and then some.

My biggest worry in the lead up to Xenoblade 3, is that since it seemed to be a combination of the worlds of 1 and 2, I didn't want the game to be overreliant on references and traditional crossover stuff. Luckily that's not the case and instead the game is given a chance to stand up on its own with a strong focus on its core cast. Some people were definitely frustrated that the game was lacking in the kind of "point and clap" references that you see in media today, but thanks to that not being the case it can instead highlight its main themes without being overshadowed by elements from the past.

Xenoblade 3 is ultimately, a game about loss and moving towards the future. Not forgetting the past all together, but using that as a stepping stone forwards. Ever since I beat it last year I haven't been able to stop thinking about its themes and just how well the game displays them. The narrative is brilliantly told, and even if some people think the antagonist group, Moebius, are kinda lame I think they help show the different facets of the world nicely. Each one has different reasons for wanting to maintain the world as it is, and seeing how they interact with the settlements works well.

The games cast is also a highlight, the core party are all great and get equal focus. You may notice while playing that the game is missing the series traditional "Heart-to-Heart"s which added little bits of optional character interactions that helped flesh out the cast. While I thought their exclusion was kinda strange, at the end I don't think the game even needed them. The party has so many interactions in the camp dialogue, sidequests, hero quests, and just over the course of the main game in general. Despite them being absent, this easily feels like the most realized party of the series yet.

Outside of the main cast, the side characters are also great. Hero characters feel like a better realized version of the "Blade" system from Xenoblade 2. While XB2 had 38 blades and XB3 has 19 heroes, the heroes in XB3 have way more substantial story content attached to them. Each one has two voiced Hero quests along with a sidequest chain attached to them and all of them are great and are used to both flesh out the character and the colony they're from. Sidequests in general are stellar in Xenoblade 3, something that the writers at Monolith have only been getting better at over the years.

Having less Heroes over the Blades in XB2, also means there's technically less character classes in the game. However the classes in XB3 are also more substantial, with each one having a unique weapon (save the two DLC classes) and outfit for each character along with various master skills and arts that have to cross over into the other classes when you start building out your loadout. So despite the fewer technical "options", it still feels like a fully complete system that let's you play around with your choices, which are many. Sometimes making a full build can be daunting, but if you're ever lost the autobuild function can help fill out the gaps.

The gameplay itself, while fun, is a bit chaotic. Having six playable members and a seventh unplayable one all at once can make the screen a bit of a confusing mess at times, especially in closed spaces. Thankfully the UI gives you enough information about your placement and who's being attacked that you can parse the more chaotic scenes fairly easily. Through this change there are also several gameplay improvements from the previous games that I love. First is that reviving people no longer costs your chain attack gauge meaning that you can actually chain attack when you want, the trade off being that now only healers can revive your party. The second being on the fly character switching which gives you more control over the battles.

Chain Attacks are way more in depth in this game and are a huge part of the combat system, while they can be a bit too long most of the time, it didn't really bother me since there is an element of strategy when picking your next move in the attack. Ouroboros forms are also new allowing two characters to fuse together for a period of time to get in some extra damage, both of these are what I consider the main "paths" you can take during combat and are part of why I liked it so much.

When you chain attack there's a song that plays nearly every time that I really liked at first, but started to get a bit grating towards the end especially since it tends to override some of the fantastic boss themes. Outside of the chain attack theme, I found the games music to be great. It's been criticized for trying to be too "atmospheric" compared to the tracks in the first two games. I'm someone who normally dislikes a lot of atmospheric music, but the tracks in Xenoblade 3 are nice. You won't get something loud like Roaming the Wastes in Xenoblade 2 or the Gaur Plains of Xenoblade 1, but stuff like Alfeto Valley and Yzana Plains are fantastic tone setters for the areas they're in. I also love the flute motif present in many of the songs and A Life Sent On is one of my favorite tracks in the series. All of the battle themes are bangers too, just wish the Chain Attack theme didn't overwrite them most of the time.

The few bits of DLC they released are fine. While it's not as much as Xenoblade 2 got post launch, the new challenge stuff is fun and I liked both of the new heroes we got. It's understandable that they couldn't release more then two of them, since each hero requires costumes for each character and various skills and arts that need to cross over with every other class, so there's more balance involved. The challenge mode is great and I'm glad they didn't just do a bunch of time attack stuff, but also added a rougelite gauntlet that was a ton of fun. I do wish that they added a few more costumes or sidequests, but the big DLC chapter was more than enough.

Xenoblade 3 is an utterly beautiful game that I wish I could experience for the first time again. Everything from its themes, characters, music, and even combat are things that I'll remember for years to come. I'm glad I decided to give this series a chance all those years ago.

Xenoblade 2: Torna - The Golden Country helps fill out some of the gaps left in the story of the main game because it's a prequel that's designed to be played after (I don't recommend playing it first). Torna is a bit of a step down gameplay wise, but still worth playing.

The combat doesn't have the same kind of depth as the main game, but the small changes it makes help keep it feeling a bit fresh for its short run time.

Torna's story was overall nice, I liked seeing Jin and Lora's relationship and it helps explain a few things that were left up in the air in XB2. Having Addam in your main party was great as well, but the least interesting character was Hugo, who's name I even struggled to remember writing this review lol.

Unfortunately the worst thing this expansion does is lock your progress behind doing a majority of the sidequests and since they don't carry over into NG+, I don't think I'll ever end up replaying this entry of the series anytime soon.

Xenoblade 2 reminds me of JRPGs from the 5th and 6th console generations (PS1/Dreamcast and PS2/Gamecube etc.) It's a game that's missing a some of the polish you see from modern "big" JRPGs. There's a lot of different systems and mechanics that don't feel quite refined and work together in weird ways, but man did I love every moment of it.

Once you get past the poor tutorials and esoteric combat mechanics (there are YouTube videos that really help) then the game's a blast. Cancelling your arts and building up elemental art combos feels great and gives the battles are really solid "flow". Outside the combat there are some frustrations, the biggest being the field skills that require you to shuffle your equipped blades around constantly to get past them.

Xenoblade 2's story is also pretty solid. It starts off feeling a bit "aimless", but once Chapter 5 hits it starts picking up and by the end is great. The way it recontextualizes things from the first game made me really excited, especially as a fan of the games that came before Xenoblade

This game is a lot more character focused over the first game. The cast feels way more fleshed out in ways that I love, and the antagonists are great and are definitely an improvement over the ones in Xenoblade 1. Also, Rex is a good character! When you actually pay attention to the story and stop fixating on his pants, the development he gets is one of my favorite parts of the game.

The music is incredible, so many tracks ranging from being somber to being bombastic. It also has what is probably my favorite dungeon theme in a game easily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0gfc6m3qJg

Of course the game isn't perfect. The menu navigation is terrible at times, the tutorials are bad, the gacha system can be frustrating, the English voice over was obviously rushed, and the Switch makes the game look bad due to how underpowered it is, but I still loved the 200+ hours I dumped into it.

Honestly I don't get the amount of vitriol this game gets tossed its way, but then again stuff like the character designs don't bother me at all (I actually like them quite a bit). I'm just glad I got to like a Xenoblade game almost as much as I liked Xenogears and Xenosaga III.

Not sure what I expected out of an epilogue packed in with the Switch port, but this was pretty alright?

It gives a bit of insight into what happened after the ending and you get to see Shulk and Melia again, the latter is appreciated since it felt like Melia got shafted by the end of the main game. Also two of Riki's kids join you, Kino and Nene, and they're endearing enough that I liked them. They did way more in making me like Riki than the main game ever did.

This still has the base games gameplay but with a weird Nopon group attack replacing chain attacks and the place you explore is cool enough.

Overall short and kinda nice, also connects to the Xenoblade 3 DLC in some interesting ways. It's only like, 4 hours long so it's definitely recommended

Xenoblade is good, but flawed. I played it back in 2014 right after playing Xenogears and the Xenosaga Trilogy and honestly felt kinda underwhelmed. While the original Wii version was technically impressive, I found myself not liking the combat and thinking the story was uneven. Replaying the Definitive Edition on Switch definitely helped me appreciate it more in retrospect.

The games opening is downright incredible. The sheer amount of emotional gut punches it pulls is so memorable and strong that it carries the Xenoblade's momentum through the first half or so. However around the time of crossing to the Mechonis is where it starts to show its cracks.

I'd say this game has one good antagonist while the others run between being kinda lame to just plain bad. Xenoblade is a game that's more "plot focused" over "character focused" so most of the cast feel like they fall out of relevance past their opening arc or just underwritten in general. The beginning and the ending of the story are so memorable that I ended up forgetting a lot of what happened in the middle.

Actually playing the game again in 2020 also felt weird. Going from Xenoblade 2, which was a lot more involved and complex, back to something so simplistic contributed in the game just feeling boring a lot of the time. The sheer amount of completely terrible sidequests also help contribute to this. Some of them help build out the world, but way too many are just as bad as the worst MMO sidequests.

But in the end I still like it despite the flaws. It has a really great soundtrack and the journey is a ton of fun by the end. Glad I ended up paying $70 for that Wii copy, cause this has become one of my favorite RPG series

Also play the Definitive Edition. The character models don't have embarrassing looking faces anymore and they mark items on the map when you need them for a quest which definitely helped my sanity when I tried to do a lot of them

What could've been an interesting way to evolve adventure games is ironically just as, if not more, frustrating than they ever were. The AI is very poor at interpreting your commands and you could try asking where someone is but you'll instead be told who they are. Simple tasks like wanting to go somewhere feel like a guessing game of figuring out what keywords the game is looking for.

Just skip this garbage and go play one of the other versions of this, unless you really feel like reading "I'm not sure what to say about that" and "Hmm..." over and over again

Final Fantasy IX is the last of the PS1 Final Fantasy games, and I'd say it's also my least favorite of the three.

The battle system, while having some fun elements, feels incredibly slow and sluggish. Even with setting ATB to max speed and using features of the PC to cut the beginning battle camera and triple the speed of the game it can still feel like a slog at times. However the ability system is great and always made finding new equipment exciting.

On an art front while the game visually looks great, I found most of the character designs to be aggressively ugly. However the environment design is some of the best on the PS1. It's crazy the kind of visual stuff Square got out of the the console

The soundtrack is... fine. Uematsu does a great job most of the time but I found it grating with how few battle themes this game has. There's an antagonist that's built up for several hours and I was incredibly baffled when you fight them and it cuts to the generic boss theme. Easily the least memorable soundtrack of the three PS1 Final Fantasy's

From a story perspective I wasn't really engaged with it for the first third of it, and by the second half it finally started to grab me. I always saw people praise the opening of this game but I wasn't a fan honestly. The cast is also a mixed bag because while I liked Zidane, Dagger, and Vivi the other cast members felt really underwritten with the worst being Amarant and Quina, who I straight up didn't like the entire time and found them annoying. Steiner was also in that category but his uptight soldier shtick finally dilutes towards the end of the game so I found him way less annoying than I did at the start. (Quina would be in my top five least favorite party members for the series as a whole, I seriously dislike him)

Overall Final Fantasy IX was a fun time albeit with some issues here and there that can make it uneven. Definitely play the PC version with the Moguri and 60fps mods, they make the game look really good. But be careful because with the Moguri mod it can cause the game to crash in a scene after the final boss which happened to me and I had to look up the ending

Final Fantasy VIII is a game with a lot of neat ideas, but with slightly poor execution. The Draw and Junction system is super interesting and allows you to pull together really interesting builds, but drawing the actual magic feels needlessly grindy (unless you utilize GF abilities that can get you magic from items). But this is also an open ended system that lets you really break over your knee which I love

Some parts of the story feel underdeveloped, the world feels lacking in its details and the way how everything is told can get confusing at times, the scene in the orphanage was a sticking point in particular. The cast also feels underutilized, but at the same time I really liked Squall and Rinoa and I'm also a sucker for this kind of love story so I ended up loving it in the end

Whether this is your favorite or least favorite game in the series, I can totally see why for both sides. The highs are pretty high, but the lows can sink pretty low too. But I think we can all agree that the soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu is an all time classic