Spyro 3 is simultaneously the best and the worst in the classic trilogy. The good parts in this game are really good! This game delivers the most polished Spyro game, it adds improvements so strong that they're retroactively applied to the whole trilogy in Reignited, and it tells the best story with some of the best lines in the series.

Sadly, the game also uses the kitchen sink approach that plagued other games of this era like DK64 and Crash: Warped and a solid 30% of this game...I just don't really care for. Give me more of the good bits I already liked in this series, not a ton of variety that either lands perfectly or somersaults face-first into the pavement. All of my least favorite Classic Spyro missions and levels are bunched together in this game and it makes me dread replays of this game a lot more than the games that contain Tree Tops and the Breeze Harbor trolley.

...but despite all that I still give this game a 4 out of 5 because, even though I absolutely hate those speedway races and any time I have to play as Agent 9, the rest of the game is still very fantastic. The good stuff is just that good.

While I do love this childhood game of mine and I think the mysterious "you figure it out" nature of recruiting Digimon and progressing through this game gives it a unique charm, it also took me 20 goddamn years to get to the final boss. Any kid that was able to beat this game in the 90's was either a gifted being born with divine will and patience or sprung for the strategy guide because good lord some of the game's puzzles and evolution requirements are disgustingly obtuse.

Also I love that one of the things that you unlock is a jukebox that will crash the game if you try to use it. A+ localization there.

The fact that I'm rating this game so highly even though I was one of those unlucky people that had to restart their entire game because I saved on the Goldoba battleship with an underlevelled team shows how much I love everything this game sets out to do. This game is the nadir of sixth generation JRPGs to me and it's a shame that so many people don't give this game a chance because of the card battle system (which is way more intuitive than it looks, even if RNG will screw you over sometimes) or the voice acting (which, yes, sucks ass) turning them away.

There's definite arguments to be had about this game's content in comparison to the older titles but I don't think enough credit is given to the way this game changed how the animals move out. Now, you have to initiate the move-out dialogue rather than finding out that one of them randomly decided to leave and you have to talk them out of it. This is a total game changer that I hope sticks with the franchise for good, because now I can play this game and take several month hiatuses without worrying that Zucker or Merengue are just going to be gone when I turn the game back on and there was nothing I can do about it. They finally removed the most stress-inducing thorn out of Animal Crossing's side and I hope it stays that way.

As for the rest of the game? I'm gonna be completely truthful here, I logged over 255 hours into this game and was playing it well into 2021 even before the huge content patch so it's safe to say that I'll be sticking with this game for another couple of years, partly because I feel more confident turning on this Animal Crossing rather than any of my older towns.

Is it wrong to say that this is my favorite Jak and Daxter game? This feels like the first time where Naughty Dog, post tone and storytelling shift, actually nailed the writing in this world that they've created. The stakes are high but not to the ridiculous "we're using time travel and other dimensions and whatever else we throw at the wall" degree that the previous games had. Instead Jak is fighting against seedy underground mafia shit after being poisoned from beyond the grave by someone he killed in Jak 2 and it rules. This is how I like my Jak and Daxter!

That being said, I do remember being oddly jealous of this game when it came out because I kinda wish we got a Ratchet and Clank racing game too. Yes I know there's racing minigames in the first two games, they're not the same, damnit!

I had to meditate on this game for a couple months after playing it to see what my opinion would be, and I have to say that this game's storytelling, visuals, and general vibe have been sticking with me long after I finished it, even if I think its sequel The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith is the better game overall. It helps that this game leans more into dark comedy and the disgustingly annoying unpleasantness of the main character rather than "oh the cutesy cartoon world is secretly fucked up", even if, yes, it turns out the cutesy cartoon world is secretly fucked up.

It's a game that's set in a cute cartoon world starring a cute bunny character that has a secret fucked up layer to it, but at least there's a substance to it and a rather good attempt at lore-building rather than introducing the darker elements purely for shock value.