I think this season has been good, I like the theme it has of chill vibes and the Reality Tree affecting different environments has been nice. I also like how the map has been redesigned for this season, like Covert Cavern being rethemed as an amusement park where you can ride in the returning Ballers. The Darth Vader boss (Albeit kind of annoying at first since everyone can see where he is when he lands so they just kind of dogpile on him at the start) is also really well-designed and his Lightsaber as a mythic is really neat.

In general I like pretty much all of the Battle Pass skins, with Evie and Darth Vader being my favorites, but I also think Snap is really creative and neat especially since previous customizable Battle Pass skins have just been rearranging weapons and cosmetics whereas he is fully customizable. Despite my love for the films I do think Indiana Jones is a strange inclusion (Why isn't he an item shop skin?) but I do like his skin as well as his cosmetics regardless.

However I feel like where this season kind of faulters is how barren it feels. The theme of the season is chill vibes and celebration yet no one is celebrating and you're all still fighting each other. It'd be nice if Epic added a social mode where people can utilize more of this season's features a lot better but that seems unlikely. EXP gain is also significantly nerfed in comparison to previous seasons with it being much harder to get EXP as of now, although this could change later in the season. I also have to criticize the Grapple Gloves as they're essentially a highly downgraded version of the Webslingers, and with Epic's relationship with Marvel and the huge presence of Spider-Man content this entire chapter I'm not sure why they couldn't bring them back.

So overall it's not bad, I think this season is a start, I do think there is some work on it that could be done to make it better however, hoping that Epic ends up sticking the landing.

Strange game tbh, a lot of weird feelings about this one. In terms of story it’s easily some of the best in Final Fantasy’s history, Nojima hit it out of the park and it really does a great job fleshing out Zack as a character, while leaving some breadcrumbs for fans in terms of character interactions and development, covering plot points not seen in Final Fantasy 7, and leaving breadcrumbs for the future as well. This all culminates in an emotionally turbulent conclusion which I got to say absolutely broke me and left me in pieces. Where this game faulters however is in terms of gameplay and design. The combat is very unintuitive and leaves a lot to be desired. Most of it is designed around spamming the attack button with very little variety, you can customize your materia to use different spells and physical attacks but it’s more limited (and not very useful) than it sounds, you’re better off really just using the standard attack most of the time. There’s also a dodge roll and a block button, but they both aren’t very useful, are slow, and have a lot of delay, making them hard to use in difficult situations. You are aided by something called the DMW, which is like a slot machine roulette that grants you a special attack, but the odds of you getting something worthwhile are completely randomized. The enemies and bosses can range in terms of design from okay to BS, with pretty fast attacks with a lot of damage and unskippable overpowered attacks that sometimes result in instant death. The areas themselves are also not very well-designed. Mostly being empty, long-spanning hallways with very few things to find or NPCs. The encounter rate is also really high, which results in you needing to fight and wipe out enemies which can get monotonous. Also added are random minigame sections. These are pretty unintuitive, and are often just a hinderance towards the overall experience as they don’t really add anything of value. All in all while the story and characters are amazing and I cannot stress that enough, the actual game itself is a really mixed bag, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Very mixed feelings as a whole.

Very high production qualities for a Game Boy Color game. Sprites are highly detailed, music is of high quality, and you can even hear voices in some areas. The game itself is short and simple, you spend one month at the Combat Revue and basically do tasks to get a new assignment. I got assigned… Janitor… There is replay value with the game to get more points, and an extension called Pocket Sakura which unlocks special bonuses in the game. Overall a bite-sized portable version of Sakura Wars without the SRPG elements that’s easy to pick up and play.

I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, I’ve been going through an incredibly rough time recently, and it almost did not end well. So I’m gonna talk about a game that helped me through a really rough spot.

This is Tales of Phantasia, released for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1995, although it wouldn’t release here until 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. I don’t know how many people are familiar with the Tales series, it’s mostly known outside of Japan for the games Berseria and Arise, but it started with this game. This is a very special game for a multitude of reasons. It was the first game of it’s time to have full-voice acting, in addition to a combat system called the Linear Motion Battle System, which is kinda like a fighting game as you play on a linear plane with a focus on combos. You can switch your attacks on the fly and even switch characters while playing, in general it’s a very unique system and felt really fast-paced and fun. There are also plenty of things outside of the main game. You can find secrets all over the overworld, sidequests that help flesh out the world and characters, and additional weapons and gear that can help you later in the game, it’s even better if you’re planning on replaying the game multiple times!

In terms of the story I was expecting something really cliched and basic but for a game from 1995 it’s actually really intractate, dealing with a lot of mature topics such as mass genocide, found family, racism, discrimination, existentialism, long-distance relationships, and more. The story is about Cress Albane and his friend Chester Burklight, who one day after a hunting trip find their village has been destroyed by bandits and their entire families killed, yes even the children which becomes a pivotal part in Chester’s arc to avenge his sister. Cress will have to go on a journey to become more than he is, he’s a wonderful character who experiences a lot of growth and maturity throughout the game and I loved his arc especially how he aspires to become an even greater swordsman than his father and his personal journey to make that a reality. Other characters include the claric, Mint Adenine, who struggles with post-traumatic stress and aspires to be as good of a healer as her mother, a great parallel to Cress’s journey, the summoner Claus, who initially starts as a very immature and childish researcher who matures into a leader and deals with a long-distance relationship with his colleague, the half-elf Arche Klein, who faces racism and discrimination for being a half-elf, and Suzu Fujibayashi, a shinobi from the future struggling with the loss of her parents. Together they must defeat the evil Dhaos, who threatens to endanger their world. I found all these characters to just be wonderful, they all grow together and feel so much like a family in spite of everything that they go through. Dhaos is also a fantastic villain, whose looming presence is felt through the entire game.

In short, Tales of Phantasia is a magical journey that brought me back to what I really love about videogames. I love the atmosphere which reminds me of the dark fantasy movies and books I read in my youth, such as Princess Bride, the Hobbit, or Labyrinth. It really helped make me feel good about myself again after such a difficult time. I still have a long way to go, but I cannot thank the game enough for how it helped me. I recommend this to anyone looking for a classic role-playing experience.

I have replayed Portal 2, as a person who has played the game several times what do I think of it on my latest play through?

Well, it’s honestly just as good, dunno what else to add. For starters the puzzles are meticulously well organized and designed and will keep you on your toes trying to figure out how to complete them.

There’s of course no pressure but if you want to speedrun the game then the option is there. The puzzles are all designed to keep replay value going, with how fast you figure out the puzzles going into how replayable the game is.

The game is also very well-written and has a strong cast of characters, GLaDoS is back and she’s as charismatic as ever, but there’s also Wheatley who’s a fun new addition and good contrast to GLaDoS as well as Cabe Johnson voiced by the legendary JK Simmons, all of this culminates in a very charming and tightly written adventure.

All-in-all the game still really holds up well, even through these many years it still stands as a must-play for anyone. I still need to play the multiplayer but the single player campaign will keep you coming back for years.

Unfortunately because of Finals I did not have much time to play this season and I unfortunately missed most of the skins part of the battle pass except the Paradigm

From what I did play though:

-New weapon additions were really diverse and offered more variety than the previous season
-The Chrome was an interesting addition and made for different combat options that made traversal easier
-Battle Pass was overall really good even if I did not complete it
-The new additions to the map were nice

Besides that I played the Event and I was kind of underwhelmed because it felt like it was perfunctorily trying to wrap up everything in the chapter in kind of a rushed way which left a lot of potholes in the story and I also thought the event was really simple and not in a good way.

Also no Black Panther skins, really?

Overall not a bad season just didn’t play much of it because of outside circumstances.

I might come back to this at some point just to say “I did it” but outside of the visuals I’m not very impressed with this game.

The core gameplay is really fun, but you lost me when you made it so you have to go through dungeons multiple times to maintain your equipment. Even on the lowest difficulty it’s very frustrating whenever you die having to start over and the game gives you very little sense of direction.

I’ll see if I feel any better if I do come back to it but I’m certainly not feeling it right now.