The first time I beat this my emulator froze after a fade to black in the ending cutscene right before the game’s credits rolled in, and and I sat there for a few minutes thinking it was an incredibly inspired decision to have an arcade game end like that without any kind of entry for a high score or something. The second time I beat it I saw the actual credits and realized that this game is a masterpiece (not because the credits were an incredible scene, just cause the game is very fun and immaculately designed)

I hate to say it but I feel like it was kind of bad. A bit of a loredumping mess to justify some fanservice party and cover up the flimsy script. Absolutely nothing happens until you stop at a random campfire and suddenly, shit gets real and we gotta go kill the big bad now.

But wow, I soyjaked when I saw Gigachad Vandham-Zeke-Rex and Dunban-Shulk!! Them having their children around seems like such a wasted opportunity when they’re just used for cheap winks and nods. You can say Aionios isn’t really even the setting to explore these themes to begin with, which true, but that just makes it REALLY concerning this was a story they considered worth telling to begin with

The levels outside of combat segments and (great setpieces in the last few) are really boring, uninspired, and borderline insulting with the amount of arrows they place telling me where to go in a completely straight hallway. I get that it's aimed at children but it seriously gets ridiculous at points (final level especially, it doesn't even make sense for there to be arrows there in universe). That said, this game has a Number Girl song so I like it by default. The combat is fun and has decent enemy variety, plus the presentation and setpieces are good enough to where I can overlook the bland levels. The bosses are all a great time, which is what you're really here for anyways. If this was just a boss rush game I'd like it a lot more. As it stands it's still a fun time.

"Spoilers" ahead, but I do have a small nitpick regarding a certain story point. The party literally just fucking kills Peppermint's brother and then move on like nothing happened. Again, I get that it's a kids game, and since the party does the same to the other bosses, I wouldn't have minded this. But they specifically take the time to setup some emotional tension between Peppermint and Kale (which is even talked about right before the boss) and then it's just never followed up on. They just murder him and everyone's cool with it, even Peppermint's mom lmfao. Not a huge deal but it just seemed really weird to me. I think it would've been better if he just wasn't related to Peppermint at all.

Detractors of this game often say it relies too heavily on emotional manipulation, but I'd argue it's ability to emotionally manipulate you is precisely why it's so brilliant. The characters, beautiful setting, and score especially, all combine to form the perfect synesthetic experience that had me gripped the entire way through. Anyone can see the plot undeniably has "issues" when viewed outside of the experience, but Taro still weaves a beautiful tale in the moment, and infuses it with the gameplay itself in ways that not many other game creators grasp.

Despite a few small falters in execution, this game still has the best thematic implementation I've seen in the entire medium, every potential theme someone can take away from it has some sort of implementation within the actual mechanics of the game, the emphasis on the importance of language and communication manifests via the words system, for example. As cliche as it sounds, it really is a "love letter to videogames!", while also stepping out on its own and carving a niche within the medium. It's also the sequel to Ocarina of Time. Basically, it's fucking awesome even through the monotony