I only did a session with the lite version and had a decent time. I had no issues with the online or neither the mechanics. It's a very formulaic kart racer. The individual ability per character sets it apart, but items aren't really anything too glamourous. I felt the stage variety was very lacking and repetitive. Maybe it was just some bad luck but most of the time it only shuffled 3 stages with alternate designs and I don't think that's any different in the full version.
Like most others, not a big fan of the battle pass structure. So will probably skip the full version on this one, and just play lite to try the new stages whenever...

Wowy, what a game. While the first opening hours might feel a bit slow, brutal and over-reliant on the counter, the gameplay thankfully escalates and shifts as you push through and power up. The sound design is stellar and ambient, and was very immersive with headphones and the 3d filter. While most of the ost is ambient, it does know when to pay off with some good actual tracks when you get to the more memorable segments. The map interface is also super intuitive and gives you the option for leaving pins for areas you want to revisit. A challenging metroid game with really good level design, gameplay and bossfights. Absolutely loved it!

I had a merry time with this one. Aside from one major setback of the game where I got myself softlocked in Maridia. I did a sequence break without really intending to and got jammed losing an hour of progress. Toggling between the secondary weapons got a bit annoying towards the end as you have to toggle select so many times to swap between secondary weapons. Aside from that one hindsight in maridia and some other rough spots I enjoyed most of the level design, the presentation and especially the iconic ending portion. The wallkick was fun to play around with although it's a bit rough to pull off until you get used to it. The technical core aspect of the gameplay definitely adds for a lot of replayability.

Despite all the flak this remake gets, I still love Twin Snakes for it's own share of qualities. The original has a stronger and more varied soundtrack, Greg Eagles as Gray Fox, and more challenge without all the new qols, and the vr missions. However, the remake has Rob Paulsen instead who I personally think does a good job as a replacement, the new soundtrack while a bit more mundane at times still hits hard at its best, more refined gameplay on par with mgs 2 engine, harder modes and tweaks like instant game over if you get detected and some crazy coreography that's still amazing to watch regardless of there being a couple over the top moments. And not to mention the Nintendo easters thrown in the game that's frikkin hilarious. Both versions have such vast differences, and I personally enjoy them both equally for their own separate directions.

Beneath the surface of stupid design choices, crappy writing, shit camera angles, and the brilliant idea of limiting 3D controls to a wii mote controller scheme, there's actually a pretty decent beat them up game with some really fun bossfights. Heck, this game still has my favourite Ridley fight. It's also a very visually striking game. As stupid as the narration is, the presentation of it is hella flashy! Too bad a lot of the game is just running around barren hallways, since the bossfights and fight sequences are great!

This was way better than what I expected! The cities and dungeons are diverse, super fun to explore and the battlesystem is speedy and flashy. The only real drawbacks I gathered were some unannounced point of no returns and the enemies could've done with some more omph in difficulty, but the overall dungeon design (save for one stinker dungeon at the midway point of the game) and metroidvania esque gameplay more than made up for it. I generally find Golden Sun is more about the journey and the world you explore rather than the actual plot, and Dark Dawn has that same setup going for it. It's just too bad the series cancelled after this one likely due to its polar reception.

After playing a rough hour of Yakuza 3 I could already tell this was going to be one of the more polarising entries.
Jumping from the remakes to this definitely shows how Yakuza 3 has aged in comparison. For me it was mainly with the less convenient map interface and Yakuza 3's stiffer movements, both outside and within combat.

The story has a more dry and subtle vibe, while the pacing is moving at a snail's pace, even more so than the previous entries.
With that being said I never felt like the pacing and mandatory orphanage sub quests discontributed to the story or made the game feel padded out. The continuously slow buildup has some genuinely emotional moments and when you finally reach the major plotpoints the payoff delivers on full aces.

In terms of gameplay it was okay.
I got by the combat fine eventually when I figured that strafing around the enemies and attacking them from their backs seemed to work, whenever they didn't decide to get ultra campy, either that or just abusing heat comboes with weapons made the combat for late game easier to deal with. Unfortunately this was the least fun combat in the series of what I've played so far.

Other than the combat, everything else is just pretty much very standard Yakuza fare and the majority of the subquests were decent and worth going through despite many of them revolving around the same scammer thematic to the point you can predict what happens as you pop up a new sidestory, and there not being as many funny ones as the earlier entries. There's still a couple good standouts in the bunch.

Despite not being the Yakuza game I've had the most fun playing, it kept pulling my heartstrings with its strong narration and character moments.

Yakuza 4 is major step up in the gameplay department from Yakuza 3. Combat is more fluid and enemies are less campy making bossfights faster and more dynamic with more options.

There's a bucket of neat concepts this game introduced, different fighting styles and a narrative spanning through 4 main characters. And I found all of them pretty damn likeable. Heck , Akiyama is one of my favourites in the series so far.

On the downside, some of Saejima's sections were downright infuriating, despite how much I enjoyed his arc it was the least fun section for me to play through. Other than that I really had no issues with Yakuza 4's gameplay.

Some of the plot elements revealed throughout the latter part of the game is however some of the dumbest shit done in the series. (at least currently of what I've seen) I don't mind Yakuza being a bit silly, Yakuza 0 did that shit so right without betraying the narrrative with dumbass twists.. At the same time the greater moments are super memorable and are absolutely worth diving through the story for. The substories were definitely a highlight and had very varied scenarios compared to Yakuza 3.

Not a bad Yakuza game by any means, but not exactly my favourite.

I love this visual novel so much and very happy it finally got an official release outside satellaview. I would recommend playing Cross before reading it though as it gives away some of the major twists for Cross.

Both the fan translation and the official translation are outstanding and have their differences with some quotes and jokes, but gets the same story perfectly across painted with strong imagery alongside a good blend of humour, suspense and tearjerker moments.

On the gameplay side of things Radical Dreamers sports an health gauge not visible to you despite being occasionally expressed through text and an affinity gauge with Kid. Otherwise the novel's interactivity is built on exploring Viper's Manour by picking routes throughout a very consistently structured maze.

Just make sure to save a lot to avoid dying from some of the random encounters and Kid's affection rate depending on most of your choices can take you away from the true ending if you piss her off too much.

A very solid 2-3 hour read with incredible music and ambience fit for a rainy day or dark nights.

A great remaster, love the updated character artworks, models and environments. Adding an option for the original models and artworks was also a nice touch to the package. And I love the fact that they actually included Radical Dreamers Le Tresor Interdit with an official translation. The only gripe is that the remaster carries over the same framerate issues from the original, but to me it's no dealbreaker for all the other visual additions they made for this remaster. Don't forget to get through the credits on the main menu after beating both games to get a new bonus ending!