A 2D action RPG/metroidvania/platformer that is also a throwback to the 8bit era. Surprisingly fair when it comes to its difficulty, there were very few deaths where I felt like I couldn't have avoided it. I do think that the bosses are a bit too easy, with you having a lot of healing tools at your disposal, as well as very generous i-frames to tank through their hits instead of bothering to dodge and learn the patterns. Which is a shame because the bosses are otherwise pretty well designed. The art style and music are charming and the gameplay never got dull. Just a solid lil game.

Another great entry to the indie metroidvania Souls-like genre. Has more of a focus on action than on exploration. The level design is nothing to write home about, but the combat system allows for a lot of customization and variety. On top of that, the atmosphere, while very reminiscent of Hollow Knight, is hauntingly beautiful. The bosses are great, enemy variety/design is good and the difficulty curve is pretty spot on. Challenging enough while rarely being frustrating. It's not quite up there with the best of the genre like Hollow Knight and Ori, but it's most definitely above average and well worth your time if you're into this stuff.

Ef - a fairy tale of the two is a romantic drama VN that has several intertwining stories about characters dealing with their own set of hardships regarding interpersonal relationships. These stories touch upon themes like ambition, rejection, jealousy, grief, abuse, tragedy, the importance of memory and many others. Ultimately all those separate stories come together in one final act that wraps it all in a touching package. It's a unique and intensely emotional experience.

One aspect that immediately stands out is its presentation. Despite its age, Ef's production values are immense. With over a thousand (!) unique CGs, lipsynching and blinking, fully animated opening and ending sequences and lightly animated walking sequences, it's a visual delight and feels truly alive. You rarely ever look at the same image for long. Every little moment of the story gets its own visual. Combine this with a huge and high quality soundtrack and the whole story feels dynamic and continuously distinctive.

The majority of the (female) characters are well written and have their own role to play in this web of interconnected tales. Unfortunately there was one of five chapters that just didn't quite live up to the rest of the VN, and while it's not entirely worthless and irrelevant, it does feel like a small blemish on an otherwise tightly written story.

Overall, Ef is a wonderful, emotional, heavy and memorable VN experience that fully delivers in the visual, sound and writing departments.

This game has one of the deepest, most complex and fluid combat systems out of the action games I've played. Unfortunately Hideki Kamiya always seems to find ways to distract you from the fun combat his games offer. This time it's in the form of:

-Overly long and frequent (thankfully skippable) cutscenes telling an absolutely nonsensial story and taking you out of the gameplay flow.
-Clunky menus and a lot of confusing and unexplained gameplay elements.
-Set pieces and flying/motorcycle missions that drag on way too long and aren't particularly fun.
-Cheap moments where bosses or enemies attack you pretty much the second a cutscene ends that you can only avoid if you spam dodge straight away.
-Awful camera at times.
-Insta-kill QTEs.
-Hit/miss bosses.

And despite all that, this game is still worth playing for any action fan. That shows just how solid the core combat is. Hopefully the sequel will fix some of this game's issues and maybe then I can find a game that I can love without any reservations.

"Why don't you come to the planetarium?
The beautiful twinkling of eternity that will never fade, no matter what.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you."

Planetarian is a touching story about a man who is trying to scavenge for supplies in a wartorn city coming across an old planetarium and an abandoned robot girl who still attending the place. A remaining relic of a lost civilization. The juxtaposition between the bleak, cold, rainy outside world and the dreamy, warm, peaceful planetarium with its purehearted, vibrant hostess affected me a lot. A star shines brightest in a dark night sky after all.

Kirby's Adventure has aged quite well for a NES game. While it's not quite up to Super Mario Bros 3's levels of timelessness, it's still by far one of the most pleasant, frustration-free, accessible and fun experiences to be found on the system.

Visually it's quite impressive with its unique colour palette and amount of detail when it comes to Kirby's animations. The gameplay is kept varied by the surprisingly large amount of transformations and fun bosses. The difficulty is on the easy side, but never to the point of being boring.

By today's standards, Kirby's Adventure is nothing extraordinary and I'm sure that later games in the franchise will go on to perfect and expand the formula, but I think for its time and platform it was released on, it's a great game.