Okay, time to share my first controversial opinion!

This game is great! A masterpiece even! Yeah, back then, Sonic Unleashed wasn't exactly well received and was even mocked for the thing I will also share my controversial opinion on. But you know what? This game was the first example to teach me to always form my own opinion no matter how opposing every other opinion out there will be.
And for me, this game rocks. In fact, despite Sonic Adventure 2 meaning the most to me, Sonic Unleashed is my favorite Sonic game PERIOD.

Coming after the dawns of darkness known as Sonic 06 and The Secret Rings, Sonic Unleashed had a lot to live up to since I almost quit the franchise. And like many others during the game's promotion, I was apprehensive and uncertain of what it was going for. In fact, I'll go ahead and admit that I hated the Werehog because, on paper, it sounded too ridiculous. But I knew that my true judgment would be after I gave the game a play myself, so I did and...
OH, MAN. I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT.
After my first playthrough, I realized that I was an ignorant fool and decided that no matter what, Sonic would be a series that I'll always be a fan of. But anyway, what's there to like about this game?

First, the gameplay. To this day, there has been no other Sonic game to match the speed and exhilaration Unleashed has. It needs to be played to be believed and that's what makes the Day Stages the most fun and thrilling experience I've ever had with Sonic. They also give the game reasonable difficulty since they rely on fast reactions and reflexes. It may not be for everyone, but it's certainly for me.
Also, side note: Eggmanland is the best Final Stage in the series AND one of the best Final Stages in gaming. Yes, it does take an hour to complete for most people, but the challenge it provides is just... brilliant. Call me sadistic, but I LOVE IT.
Then, we have the Night Stages, aka the Werehog. The big old controversy of this game. Now, I do understand why it was disliked. It deviated from the core gameplay Sonic was known for and made you flip-flop between the two styles for the entire game. I do get it! However, I've always been a forgiving person and one to give anything a chance, so after giving the Werehog one, I found it pretty fun! The brawler/beat 'em up gameplay it centered around was already a genre I had relatively decent experience with, so it wasn't a completely alienating thing.

Second, the music. Well, honestly, I don't need to go in-depth about it because we all know that no matter what, the soundtrack is going to slap, and Unleashed's music slaps HARD. The way it utilizes so many different instruments instead of mainly relying on the guitar and represents the various cultures the Stages are based on is nothing short of masterful and beautiful. It's honestly my 3rd favorite Sonic soundtrack, right behind Sonic Adventure 2 which sits behind... uh. Well, I'll mention it another time. ;)

Third, the graphics. Now I may be alone in this considering the fact that this game is 15 YEARS OLD (wow, where has the time gone, I miss my childhood;-;) and it came out on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but I think Unleashed has the best art direction, animations, and graphics in the series. Yes, I do think they're that good. The mix of beautiful locales with the cartoony look of the characters just works so well. And for a 7th gen game, it's pretty impressive.

And finally, the story. Holy mother of Gaia, Unleashed's story is perfect. It expertly blends adventure, action, comedy, heart, and tragedy seamlessly, giving what I believe to be Sonic's greatest and most memorable adventure. But the story also hits close to home as Unleashed came out when I was moving out of my first home and Sonic living his life after Chip's sacrifice reminded me of me living my life after leaving my friends and the life I knew.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get cheesy in this.

Honestly, the only flaws this game has are...
1) The fact that you have to collect so many Sun and Moon Medals to unlock the Stages. I mean, what's the point? We have to travel across the entire world to restore it, so the urgency is extremely high. It's just kind of a pacebreaker.
2) The framerate can drop during exciting moments, most notably, the Adabat Day Stage. Dear Gaia, every time I replay that stage, the framerate drop makes me cringe.
3) This last problem isn't actually about the game itself, but rather with the soundtrack. WHY THE HELL IS THE MAIN THEME, ENDLESS POSSIBILITY, NOT INCLUDED IN THE DIGITAL RELEASE OF THE SOUNDTRACK? SERIOUSLY, THAT SONG IS SO ICONIC AND BELOVED, AND YET, IT WASN'T PUT IN FOR THE DIGITAL PLATFORMS. WHY.

Okay, I think I've gone on about this game long enough. To summarize, I love this game. Go play it.

See you on the next game review I write!

BLACK SOULS markets itself as an utterly miserable experience. Through the visuals, music, and storytelling, it presents itself as the edgiest video game ever made, and that's, on its own, not a bad thing at all. It's fun to see a story be so brave and open about what it truly is. Not just fun, it could be something truly great.
However, when you actually play the game, this dark, gritty, and supposedly unforgiving world constantly spoonfeeds you with items to raise some meaningless number in your stats, a level-up system that's a huge downgrade from the original Dark Souls - after all, there is absolutely no trade-off to leveling your stats, as all of them get equally raised with every level-up - and, I cannot state enough how baffling this is, it REWARDS you for dying by giving you another item that raises your stats.
The worst part, however, is that there's an actual difficulty slider. A game called "BLACK SOULS," which signals from the very start that it's a game that shows you how kind Dark Souls actually was, is too cowardly to give you a set difficulty, so you can make the experience easier, you can get spoon-fed once more, whenever you want to.
It is complete ludonarrative dissonance. Nothing in the gameplay feels BLACK, it all just feels like an ignorant attempt at making the player crawl through the mud, to replicate Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, without actually knowing how to do it. I cannot feel the story's misery when I'm too concerned with managing all the stat bonuses I keep getting.
Playing this game on the initially set difficulty is a walk in the park. In the second half of the game, you can beat some of the most powerful beings on the planet by spamming a single move three times.
For most games, this would be inexcsuable. It would be such bad game design that nobody should ever play it, a completely worthless experience. However, what makes BLACK SOULS nevertheless recommendable is the incredible storyline. The story is so good, so well-written, that it alone makes the game worth it.
Therefore, despite the mediocre game-design, I can't wait to play BLACK SOULS II and see how the story unravels.

Side-note: After finishing the series, I will go back and play through these games on the highest possible difficulty. In the hope that the higher difficulty will finally give the game the atmosphere it deserves.
If this higher difficulty actually turns out to be amazing gameplay-wise, I will recommend everyone, even if it's their first playthrough, to use the highest possible difficulty setting. This doesn't excuse the horrendous idea of having difficulty settings in the first place, but at least it gives me some sort of peace of mind.
Because, really, this series looks like it could be one of the greatest stories ever told. If I can get rid of the complete mismatch in tone between gameplay and story, I will give this game the title of masterpiece it ought to deserve.

This is a bit of a mixed bag for me but if I'm really honest here the thing that impacted me the most was Parun (the developer) and their personal story. Since it hasn't really been said here I'm not necessarily comfortable discussing it in a review but feel free to look it up if you are curious.

The foundation is great. It's the Corpse Party/Misao vibes with a story focused on mental health and tackles the effects of domestic abuse, adultery and the main theme of loneliness. These are all concepts that have the potential to be executed well even in an RPG Maker format.

The dialogue was where things got a bit strange for me. There's moments where a lot of out of place humor or plot points break any genuine feelings I had towards Yuuichi and Shunsuke. Yes, it's a tragedy. I've seen quite a lot of tragedies in these games but this one was just not one of the better executed ones. Details like the father's roleplay fetish and the interjections of the dog, while fairly amusing, ended up rubbing me the wrong way in a game with such a serious message.

The other problem is that the gameplay here is extremely annoying to deal with. It is a combination of the trial and error puzzles AND the turn-based combat. The puzzles aren't bad, until they are. There are points where the solutions are so specific that you wouldn't know without a guide.

The example that is still sticking with me a dark hallway where you lose your friend Ryou. You can obtain a flashlight beforehand, but you cannot activate it, implying you need to use it later. In actuality, you're supposed to wait till you hear a sound while moving through the darkness, check your menu until Ryou's icon disappears, turn around and keep walking back until you encounter Ryou, then access a cutscene in which Shunsuke will turn the flashlight on. Stuff like this exists in other RPG Maker horror games, yes, but this one felt like it had significantly more moments like that.

Turn-based combat is also basically just a puzzle. This makes it also another very specific trial-and-error type situation, in which most turns require to do extremely specific moves or patterns, else you will die. I did not find this to be very fun.

If I disregard the strange dialogue and the slightly shallow way the story portrays itself, there were certainly things to love. The mental health focus is still something I must respect and will cherish the impact it made on this genre. Parun spoke out about something that absolutely deserved to be talked about and he did it in a very unique way. I thank him for this and he will be missed.

The ending is certainly memorable and I can't help but feel that there is a very real connection between the true end and the fog surrounding mental health in our world. Some will ignore it, others will never even know it is there. That is definitely true horror.

I think I also realized I need to start looking for some really happy games to play in the meantime because goddamn have I been on a major depressing game spree.