That's how I like my GTA games.
Unlike GTA IV which tried something different with a more realistic approach, this one is just like the old games. Characters with exaggerated personalities and crazy missions. On top of that, it has the pinnacle of video game technology, "checkpoints". You are no more in need of to repeat the whole mission with it's boring driving parts just because you failed it.
It's good, it really is good, I could've even said it's better than GTA IV if it was a little longer.

Works of Yasumi Matsuno always clicked with me in a spesific way that i can't really put it into words, maybe it's the complex political struggles, gray characters and harsh tone of his stories,written in a fantastic Shakespearian English, which is a style of language that i always adore,maybe it's the fantastic art direction by Akihiko Yoshida and epic music by Hitoshi Sakimoto that perfecly suits the tone of the world, or maybe it's the incredibly deep and complex gameplay systems that always make me feel like i completely missed the best parts of gameplay in second playthroughs.It's all of these actually, but a little more than that. And Tactics Ogre is probably his "definitive" game,the one with least drawbacks. From start to finish(except the final boss ) this game is absolute perfection. There are a few minor things that i can nitpick about, but no major flaws. This game captures all of the things i love so much about Matsuno games, and polishes it to the point where it's enjoyable in every single second of 40 hours i spend on it(which is a number that will no doubt increase significantly with the other story routes and postgame content)
Story is a fantastic tale that deals with themes like war, genocide, suicide, and the philosophy of "ends justifying the means" and it's paced pretty much perfecly, in every single cutscene, i was completely drawn in to the harsh and politically fragile world of Valeria, and it's gray and layered characters. Story overall resembels FFT quite a bit, but my main problem with the story of FFT, was the fact that it turned into a generic "save the world from the big bad guy" type of story by the Chapter 4 (don't get me wrong, it's still one of my favorite stories in a JRPG no doubt) but Tactics Ogre avoids that, and keeps the political tone of the story consistent throught the whole game, and the fact that i only saw like, one third of the story makes me so excited to play the other routes
Gameplay is another aspect where Tactics Ogre shines.On the surface, it's a standard SRPG,but system goes so deep and opens up so much customization and experimentaion,while keeping the balance of the battles extremely sharp and satisfying, every single battle was a blast, just like the story, i only utilized a fraction of the options game presents and tried 10 or so different classes, and i feel like even with these classes, i feel like can play this game for well over a hundred hours, and game has like, 40 classes and a bunch of unique recruitable characters. Systems are very accessable, balanced, deep, and most importantly, a ton of fun
While i still think Vagrant Story's OST is Hitoshi Sakimoto's magnum opus, and the emotinal tunes of FFT is makes me prefer it a bit more, music is still incredibly memorable, bombastic and epic, and makes the battles a whole lot more engaging, tracks like Fight It Out will probably play in my head for a good couple of weeks
Like i said, i have very little nitpicks about this game, but nitpicks nonetheless, first of all, i don't like how archers are practically useless after chapter 2,and i don't like that some skills are triggers automatically unlike the PSP version, sure, you can collect cards to increase the chance to trigger them, but i would so much prefer to have 1 or 2 additional skill slots for manual use of those skills. And while i appreciate the level cap for allowing a more consistent and balanced difficulty, there are points where you stuck at level 19 and 26 for hours, making every battle practically useless for your characters. And while i don't usually like to grind and break RPG's like this, i would have prefer to having the option
Except for these issues, i don't really have a problem with this game, i would recommend it hard for anyone that likes SRPG's, deep gameplay systems, or more serious, mature mediaval fantasy settings. If anything i said even remotely interests you, please pick this game up, amount of content easily justifies the price tag in my opinion

This is one of, if not the best 2D platformer i've ever played.first Mario World was pretty fun, but this one just improved upon it in every aspect in my opinion.In the first game, a lot of the levels used generic and same backgrounds for levels, but every background in Yoshi's Island is literally a work of art. This game's art direction and presentation is top notch,i absolutely adore childish and charming aesthetic of the hand drawn visuals. Every level feels like a part of the island, rather than just a videogame level
Also, this game's design philosophy is quite a lot different than your average platformer. There are your typical, fast paced platforming levels, but also a lot of exploration based levels too, which are a lot larger and complex than fast paced platforming levels. I can understand the people who didn't like these, since they can be too long and tedious for some people. But i really enjoyed the exploration and level of complexity these levels had, also game is paced really good between both style of gameplays.Most of the time you get fast paced platforming, then a slower, exploration based platforming, then right after, another pair of fast levels. Exploration never become too tedious for me because of this
My only problem with the level design is one hit kill traps,especially in the endgame, they feel really cheap in an otherwise excellently designed game
Also, there are way more interesting mechanics in levels, like turning into o helicopter, digging machine or skiing through a mountain, i don't want to spoil too much, but i am really impressed by the amounts of mechanics an SNES game had
Another big change is the life system, getting hit has no negative effect on Yoshi outside of a few seconds of staggering, but you lose the Baby Mario you are carrying throught all game. If you can't take him back in a limited time, it's game over. The problem is, every time you lose Baby Mario, he has a really loud and annoying crying noise, sure, this adds to the sense of urgency of the system, but it could have handled better imo. Outside of this little issue, i think this is a very unique take on the life system, it didn't bother me all that much, and it works quite good throught the game.
I wasn't really drawn by the idea of playing as Yoshi instead of Mario, but his buttery smooth controls and excellent moveset quickly changed my opinion. Swallowing enemies and turning them into eggs, then throwing those eggs is a major mechanic and it's really fun to use,gives a different way to tackle enemies, and boss fights really benefit from this mechanic, you are requiring to do more different things than just stomping their head three times
Another new mechanic is floating in the air for a short time, there ain't so much to say about this one. It's sometimes gives another way to approach levels. Are you going to play safe and take safe jumps,or trust to floating and took longer, risky jumps? It's a nice choice to have
Music adds a lot to the game's charm and presentation. Soundtrack is most of the time playful, cathy and perfecly catches the mood of the game, especially 'Athletic Theme' will probably live in my head rent free for some time
You can really feel the amount of charm, creativity and love developers poured into this game, if you're mario, or simply a platforming fan, don't overlook this excellent title