Just like the main game, it's rather messy. but its the coolest fucking mess I've ever witnessed. the new characters are super fun to play as (TAILS TORNADOOOOOOOO), the game is ACTUALLY DIFFICULT NOW (and this is a DEFINITE GOOD THING AND ANYONE ELSE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE, SKILL ISSUE), and, despite me being a massive original final boss defender, the new final boss is INFINITELY BETTER THAN THE OG FINAL BOSS. GENUINELY ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS TO COME OUT OF THE SONIC FRANCHISE. Really, my only gripe is that there wasn't a wholly brand new Kellen Quinn song, but I'm sure we'll see more of him when frontiers 2 comes around, so I can wait. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I can't wait to see whats next from the sonic team. especially now that they'll actually have a budget.

A good game hidden behind bad design choices. The base gameplay here is great, the upgrades are typically fun, the main gimmick is super cool and impressively implemented, and the music is fantastic (although the 16 bit tracks tend to be downgrades from the 8 bit tracks, somehow), but most everything else about this game left me severely disappointed. The level design leaves a lot to be desired (THE AMOUNT OF INSTAKILL PIT ROOMS IS ACTUALLY UNBELIEVABLE), the enemy variety is lacking (you will be seeing the same 5 enemies until the very end, with only 2-3 unique enemies per level, and that's being generous), both halves of the game go on for way too long, and the story is never allowed to reach its full potential due to probably my least favorite part of the game: the writing. For a script so dependent on humor it is PAINFULLY unfunny. past the first couple hours my eyes rolled at nearly every attempt at a joke. THERE IS LITERALLY A MOMENT WHERE A CHARACTER SAYS "WELL, THAT JUST HAPPENED" I SHIT YOU NOT. the further the game went on the more and more fed up with this games shit I got. I will most likely still end up playing Sea of Stars at some point, but my experience with this game has made me a lot more wary of it, which really sucks because I was pretty excited for that game.

Not really sure what I expected going in but I think it's safe to say that this game passed all expectations. Not only does this game play like a dream, but it has a gorgeous visual style, a genuinely great story that had me invested beginning to end, and honest-to-god one of my favorite casts of characters to come out of this year. Ayre, Rusty, Walter, Carla, Michigun. I love them all, and we never even get to see any of their faces. Fromsoft proves once again that they are one of the best doing it right now. Time to go back and get the rest of the endings.

saw a tweet that said something along the lines of "where pikmin 3 was a perfection of pikmin 1's formula, pikmin 4 feels like a perfection of pikmin 2's formula" and I wholeheartedly agree, but I also kind of feel like it goes beyond that. this game builds upon the ideas set in every previous game in the series (even hey! pikmin apparently since thats where sparklium originally came from I think?) and because of that, I can say with full confidence that this is easily the best game in the series. I mean, they actually made caves GOOD. WIZARDRY. it's still got a few flaws that are keeping it from being a 10/10 (weird timeline reset, underutilization of a couple pikmin types, etc) but it is damn close. entering the postgame, can't wait to play more.

ok so we can all agree that this is by far the best one right? You can argue that the Pikmin 1 had a better story, or that Pikmin 2 had more to do, but come on. the new pikmin types are awesome, the new QOL stuff is incredible (LOCK ON AHHHHHHHHH), the game just LOOKS gorgeous, the boss fights are the best in the series, the pikmin aren't nearly as stupid as they were in the first two, and it just plays better overall. I just wish it was a bit longer, but tbf there's still the side story stuff. hype levels are at a max for Pikmin 4, here's hoping that game is as good as it looks.

this game feels like a double edged sword to me. on one hand the removal of the time limit makes the game a whole lot less stressful, the new pikmin types are fun, and game is honestly just funny as hell sometimes. On the other hand, the lack of a time limit means I have less motivation to get things done, which leads to an overall slower pace. also, the caves, while good in concept, are way too long and tedious. The core pikmin gameplay is still intact and magical, as per usual, but I personally feel like this game is an overall step down from the original.

I'm... underwhelmed.

There's a lot here that I would describe as great (story is great, gorgeous graphics, THE SOUNDTRACKKKKKKKK) but at the same time there're so many flaws I just can't get over. The pacing is super strange, there's some story stuff in the late game that is a little strange (won't get into specifics bc spoilers), the level design is middling, and my biggest critique: the combat. It's honestly not an issue I have with this game in particular, but action games in general. The combat just becomes so damn boring after 30 hours. I appreciate the attempt to switch things up but I just think this game is too long for this kind of combat. Despite all my bitching I think think this game is pretty good, but I gotta say, considering how hype I was prerelease, I'm pretty let down.

dogshit artstyle change and slow ass combat be damned, I actually like this one more than the first. Story is better, despite its slowness I actually like the gameplay more, and the soundtrack is INFINITELY better than Xenosaga Ep. 1. Glad Jr got more focus, dude is actually a top tier xeno series character for me now. Honestly, this game just made me love the cast even more than before (minus allen lol I still hate him). Won't get into episode III right away cuz I don't want to get burnt out but man I can't wait to play it. I hear its the best one.

Un-fucking-believeable game. I already thought that Breath of the Wild was a top game of all time but this shit is next level. Takes genuinely everything great about BotW and enhances it tenfold. Everywhere I turned I was faced with some new QOL or feature or gimmick that floored me. The story, while not the best I've ever seen, had me rather invested and had an absolutely incredible final act. Jaw was on the floor the entire time. Legit the only complaint I have is that the sage abilities are kinda hard to manage. like why the hell is there a map option on the ability wheel and not an option for turning off/on sage abilities? idk. Otherwise, peak gaming. game of the year. Legit cannot be topped I'm sorry Hi-Fi Rush. I still love you I swear.

The first time I played a xenoblade game, I was a measly 12 year old. At the time, I had never played a single JRPG and was largely against interacting with anything “anime” related. This adversity really came down to a stigma I had been exposed to early on: that anime stuff was for “nerds” and “weirdos”. My brother, though, didn’t really care about anything like that, and bought a game on its release that he thought looked pretty cool. A game named Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Despite my reservations, I gave his copy a shot, and I was immediately hooked. Say what you will about early game Xenoblade 2, but that shit was the coolest thing ever to my little 12 year old brain. As soon as I beat chapter 1 on his copy, I knew what had to be done. I got my own copy for christmas, and it quickly became my favorite game of all time.

Ever since then, this series has had an absolute grip on me. I have played every single game this series has to offer (I even dabbled in a bit of Xenosaga, though I’ve only played episode one), and now, mere days before my 18th birthday, the finale of this series that I have been a fan of for damn near a third of my life, finally arrived.

And I don’t think I could have asked for a better ending.

I think my biggest issue with Future Redeemed is that it doesn’t answer all of the questions we all had, and it actually ends up posing a few new ones, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t really care. This shit blew my mind multiple times, and it wraps up the overarching Xenoblade narrative beautifully. I’m not even going to go more into it, because I don’t want to risk spoiling anyone. Plus, the new gameplay stuff introduced here is super fun to mess around with. I don’t know if it's just me, but I feel like they made bursts and smashes even more satisfying to pull off. Also, they made the community system good???? Somehow???? Fucking wizards, man.

Basically, all I'm trying to say is that this is the best send off to this series I could have asked for. It’s incredibly bittersweet, knowing that this story, this world, is over, but the fact that it happened at all, considering Takahashi’s previous attempts at creating a 6 chapter saga like this, is unbelievable. I’m incredibly grateful to Monolithsoft for making this amazing saga, and I cannot wait to see what they do next.

X2, please?

Roguelikes have never been my favorite genre of game. Every single time I've tried to get into one, I just end up giving up at some point. Dead Cells had awesome gameplay, but I never felt like I was making any progress. I loved so much about Hades, but I just couldn't get past Elysium and it got so frustrating that I just wasn't having fun anymore.

Funnily enough, I actually didn't go into Risk of Rain 2 knowing that is was a roguelike. The only reason I picked the game up was because some friends of mine told me the multiplayer was fun, and because I had heard the song "...con letitud poderosa" and thought "Holy shit, whatever this is from I need to play."

I was obviously thrown off when I realized what I had gotten myself into. I expected to like it, but get bored with it eventually, just like what had happened many times before. But that didn't happen. Just about the opposite, actually.

I don't think I'm alone in saying that this game is basically the video game equivalent of crack. The basic gameplay is already rather fun, but the item system is quite possibly one of the best upgrade systems I've ever seen in a video game. Every round, you gradually obtain more items with varying effects, dealing more and more damage, inflicting a large range of status effects, and healing yourself with many different methods, until you're essentially an unstoppable killing machine. But the enemies are also gradually getting more powerful, and at a faster rate than you. You can kill most things in about 3 hits in the late game (even faster if you get lucky with your build) but so can the enemies. its perfectly balanced to be difficult but super rewarding too. Every time I died, I kept on telling myself "Just one more run." No other roguelike has ever done that to me before.

So, I kept at it, grinding at the game harder and harder until, just about 40 minutes ago, I finally got the god run. the circumstances surrounding my first victory are actually kinda funny. I was planning on just doing one round on monsoon difficulty before going and doing my homework (I had been playing on rainstorm most of the time, but I had just decided the other day to switch it to monsoon), but on my first attempt, I died during the stage one teleporter boss. I wasn't gonna let it end like that, so I immediately restarted, and, well, I think you can guess what happened.

If it wasn't clear already, I love Risk of Rain 2. Its not only an exceptional roguelike, but an exceptional game, and I plan to sink even more time into it than I already have. Also, Risk of Rain Returns cannot come soon enough. The 2D gameplay might throw me off a bit, but at least I'll get to hear more Chris Christodoulou bangers.

obligatory shoutout to him, btw, the music was half the reason I had the motivation to complete this game. will be looping for the foreseeable future.