I put this game down for a long while after it left GamePass, but I enjoyed it enough to pick it up for myself. I really loved this one!
Artistically this game knocks it out of the park for me. It's bright, poppy, and so full of flair and charm. I love how every character is made up of these cute simple shapes and designs, almost like Muppets. Every environment feels so different even during the revisits in the latter half of the game. Music is such a vibe. "9:01 am" is one of my personal favorites, and the final boss music goes insane. Truly a treat to see and hear from start to finish.

The actual rougelike elements of the game are simple; combat is as well. There are a number of different weapon types, but for the most part they're all either swinging something or shooting something. Some are big, some are small, and they have different attributes based on their size. The game is split into 3 levels, each based on different startup companies. Every area has their own sets of enemies and weapons, so they offer different challenges. Each level is a set of 3 floors and a 4th boss floor. Along the way you pick up different upgrades called "Perks." Sometimes these things are super helpful, like making 2 handed weapons swing like 1 handed weapons, and some of the later ones are even better. The choices mesh well with the Mentor mechanic. Each member of Fizzle has a number of quests for to do, leading to their mentorship. These give even MORE upgrades, and can really change how you approach floors.

I'm definitely going to come back to this one to take on Impostor mode and unlock the last of the perks, but this was one hell of a time. It's quirky, funny, tough, and has tons of replay value. I highly recommend this one!

Pseudoregalia is incredibly fun when you get the hang of it. For me, it took a bit to get the game under my thumbs but there were moments of fluidity that felt amazing. The sense of growth in the short playtime this game comes with is quick and rewarding.

There were times where I felt the game was fighting against me or was a bit clunky controlwise. Ledge grabs felt inconsistent, combat was a bit wonky, but it worked for the most part. The actual metroid-vania aspect of this game isn't handled very well, in my opinion. While the moveset you get is varied and interesting, the lack of a proper map system and areas that all look and feel the same leads to tons of running in circles and rechecking rooms. Something as simple as a marker on the map that indicates that something is in the room would've helped a ton (which is why most other games in this genre do this). The most frustrating parts of this game are when you feel like you have very little direction, because you find yourself running through the same small corridors repeatedly. On the topic of the small corridors, the camera does not agree with a lot of this game's geometry. I understand cameras in a 3D space are hard to work around, but it seemed that in most cases areas were either far to tightly packed and hard to navigate (Underbelly) or so big I couldn't see what was next (Theater, Bailey). Trying to navigate these tight spaces with minimal vison was mildly frustrating, and happened fairly often for me.

I really wanted to love this game after hearing all the fanfare, but I just think it's pretty good. Maybe it's a skill issue, but my time with this game was pretty rocky.

Persona 3 is a game that means more than the world to me. The journey shared by this cast of characters is the most heavy and thought provoking in the series hands down. The characters are all so real and change so naturally over the course of the narrative. It's beautiful seeing them go from barely caring about one another to becoming a newly found family. FES changed my life forever when I played it as a child, and I'm so beyond lucky that I was born at a time to be able to play this life changing game for the first time twice in one lifetime.

Please play this game. Life is worth living. Love those around you. Be better for yourself.

I played this coming off of Sea of Stars wanting to see how they're connected. I wasn't 100% sure what I was getting myself into, but I'm big into 2D platformers so I figured I'd like it. The game has a really interesting premise and a gimmick that I've personally never seen before, but I feel like the game missed a lot of potential and falls short as a Metroidvania.

You play as a ninja who is soon revealed to be a prophetical hero of legend, a Messenger. You're tasked with taking a scroll to the top of a mountain. It's somewhat nondescript, but it's fleshed out later. The game opens as an 8-bit side-scroller where you traverse from level to level eventually reaching the mountain. Later on down the line you gain the ability to travel to the future and the game flips into a Metroidvania that swaps between 8bit and 16bit to show the passing of time. It's really really interesting visually, and the music having different renditions for each period adds to that feeling. The presentation here is great and the music for the most part is pretty good.

The Messenger is able to cling to walls, glide slightly, use a grappling hook, and later learns to walk on water. The real special mechanic here is the Cloudstep. If you're airborne and land a hit on an enemy or projectile, you get another jump. You can do this indefinitely and many of the levels are built around this. Sometimes it's great! There were so many times that I felt a really nice flow climbing walls or jumping off of enemies, but sometimes they get very demanding with the timing and precision on these jumps. I wouldn't mind this so much if I was able to map my controls a bit more comfortably. One button acts as your jump and glide, so it's a lot of mashing A to keep height and rolling your thumb to X to swing your sword. It's just a little uncomfortable and I'd like to be able to use the triggers more. While the moveset itself is fine, some kind of dash would've been appreciated as well. The Messenger isn't that fast, so an air dash or something would've made platforming more quick and snappy imo.

Level design is all over the place. There are often some odd difficulty spikes like in the Tower of Time, or they just say f-it and the whole level is spikes and pits like in Glacier Peaks. The game asks you to backtrack through the same 3 or 4 areas over and over again because not every world gets a portal. It takes forever to get anywhere in this game. It all feels so spread out. There were multiple moments were I walked away because I just didn't feel like going through Autumn Woods for the 4th time in a row. It would help if maybe you could warp between warp points in a given world when you reach it. Maybe as a late game power up to help with clean up. Some areas don't even feel like they're meant to be back tracked through, meaning you HAVE to go around a longer way to get where you need to go. The prime example is Glacial Peaks. Right in the middle of the level is an object of interest, but the portal takes you to the top of the mountain. Getting down is a MAJOR pain, so you HAVE to climb up from the prior area. It just feels like this game often wants to waste your time, but this is just one instance where I felt it was unnecessarily annoying.

The Messenger was an ok 10 hour game. It lacks that sense of progression that games like Hollow Knight or Symphony of the Night have, but for the $5 I picked it up at I can't be too upset. The lore makes no sense, the link to Sea of Stars is barely there, but it was cool to see the links in real time while playing. I probably won't come back to this one.

I firmly believe that P4 is the weakest entry in the series. Compared to even just 3 and 5 I feel like this game is just so dry. The overarching plot is interesting but it takes HOURS to get anywhere at all. When you get into the meat of the game, you're met with a cast of one-dimensional anime tropes that don't really grow as a unit, and instead have their own social links that help develop their characters. Personally this really bothers me about 4 and 5 because it feels like the main story and the events taking place don't have much of an effect on the cast and their only true pursuit for their "true selves" is optional in a game about finding your true self. You meet a character, they dump all their sparknnotes on you, you fight a shadow, they say it's not them, rinse and repeat until the party is fully made and we can move on. It all just feels like a means to an end rather than a group actively trying to come together from nothing and make a team that becomes something. It doesn't help that the group is generally not the most likeable. I think Yosuke and Yukiko are some of the most annoying characters in the series and I just can't get past them. Teddie is ok tho, he grew on me but he has his moments where he's better off not talking.

I dunno, maybe I'm being to harsh but I feel like if the characters were more involved with the story outside of "they were thrown into the tv by the killer and now they have a persona so they're gonna help you now" would've made this more engaging. An overall mediocre experience with much dated dungeon crawling mechanics with a story that doesn't make up for its shortcomings. It's insane that a game that looks and sounds this good can feel this empty to me.

Celeste is one of the most consistently engaging 2D platformers I've ever played. The simple moveset mixed with complex, secret ridden level design lend itself to an intoxicating experience that naturally lends itself to being speedran. Every level has so much thought and care put into the environments, the music constantly gives this unsettling but fantastical push to your adventure, and the way the game tackles real issues that real people have in very serious and well thought out ways keeps the adventure's narrative engaging. If you like 2D platformers at all you'll most likely enjoy this game.

This is like actually one of the best games I've ever played. The sense of speed, the intricate level design, the insane visual style, there's just so much going on here to talk about.

Pizza Tower is the definition of easy to play, hard to master. The emphasis on fast, precise, hectic platforming is accentuated in every facet of this game's design. The sense of flow this game brings you into it's euphoric almost. The rush of getting to a pizza portal and seeing the rank switch to P and praying nothing goes wrong, and then finally getting that release at the end and seeing the rank it feels amazing. I genuinely couldn't think of something in this game that I really didn't like other than Oh Shit! being way too long and somewhat uninteresting. Other than that this game is 1 in a million. Nothing like it stylistically, and Wario Land wishes it could have this much swag.

I had tons of fun with this one! Having played some Jet Set as a kid I was thoroughly excited to try this when it came out and it didn't disappoint. My biggest complaint would be that, in my opinion, the game is SUPER heavy on style over substance, but the style is so strong that it didn't bother me too much. The plot often serves little purpose other than getting you to the next area or introducing a new character. The premise was interesting, but I feel like having more time to cook as well as more moments for characters to really grow with each other would've made this a truly memorable experience. Also think maybe like a 5-10% general speed increase too would make it more exciting. Overall beautiful game with beautiful music and tons of style.

I Wanna Kno and Operator were my favorite tracks <3

This might be the best 2D platformer of all time as well as one of the most timeless video games ever crafted. The attention to detail in every aspect of this game from the level design, progression, abilities, music it all just clicks. To this day the game still looks phenomenal and the soundtrack is some of the best you'll ever hear. Every level is full of little secrets and every part of the game feels like it has purpose. It's a simple game with an amazing vibe, incredible level design, solid theming, gorgeous visuals, and an experience that I think consistently tops most any other 2D platformer I've ever played.