This game is pretty interesting, mixing elements from an average 3D platformer, Zelda game, and games like Hollow Knight. All that created an experience that’s quite fun, albeit not super long.

I completed the game around the point I’d expect it to have at least a second to last temple, but I don’t want to push high expectations on an indie game. I’ll at least admit the ending could’ve been better. It just…kinda ends with no fanfare.

Overall though, it controls well and has a solid skill ceiling for those interested in a challenging platforming game (especially with the DLC) while also being given some adventure game goodness to top it off.

Absolutely stellar.

That is how I’d describe my experience with this game. I loved the overall story and how deep and thought provoking it was. Even knowing what I was getting into didn’t fully prepare me. I love how the characters could be super nice or super terrible and yet end up changing or showing more depth. It makes it clear none of them are straight good or bad.

Not to mention the combat was super fun! It’s a highlight for me that this game never got super old in the fighting department, and I just kept having fun smashing bots and trying out new stuff. (Even if some of that new stuff wasn’t super useful.) I wasn’t huge on the backtracking aspects, but it’s not as bad as it could be. Plus, movement is smooth enough to make it fun to just get around. Not to mention all the little secrets to find.

Though it does have faults in some technical aspects. The environment, while pretty, can be pretty blocky in some places and show some rough edges that obviously weren’t given as much attention. And the game itself can be pretty buggy sometimes, which is pretty obvious when you see animals glitching out on stuff in the forest area, or accidentally leaving the side scrolling plane at times.

Also, some quests in the game were just…not super fun. I wouldn’t say I played them for their gameplay, but I can stomach that for some cool dialogue and rewards. (Just wish I had some indication where those hidden items in the desert were that you were supposed to look for.)

But, overall, I just loved so much about this game. It made me really appreciate the unique style that Yoko Taro has in storytelling and overall design. The man is a treasure and I really hope to try the Replicant remake sometime in the future to see the rest of his work.

I first found this game because of an ad on YouTube. Weird how the site infamous for shoving crappy mobile game ads down your throat became charitable enough to actually show you an ad that’s honest for once.

It was pretty simple too. It advertised itself as a self discovery clicker game, which is accurate overall. Though that premise brings in many questions though. Let’s go over that gameplay then, shall we?

The game is split into two sections. The one you’ll be in the most time is the clicker section. As you’d expect, it plays like a typical clicker game with you tapping text bubbles to gather EGO and spending EGO to read books (this games equivalent of buying services) to get more EGO over time. It’s very simple, and bases its identity on many books about self reflection and contemplation.

It’s very much the part that’ll make or break the game for you though, since it’s nothing groundbreaking in this department. It’s a typical formula that’ll mainly be enjoyable to those into this genre of games. That being said, I am not a clicker fan and I still didn’t hate this stuff. I didn’t love it, but still.

A lot of it does come down to the excellent music, which calms me down and puts me in a relaxed yet tense state. Like I’m trying to focus, but intrusive thoughts come in to break it. Big shout out to amiko for the music in this game, btw. She did great here!

But the second part of this game is where it truly shines. In this section, you get to speak to the game’s main character. Es. I won’t spoil it for you, but doing these quizzes and discussions with Es becomes much more interesting than you might expect from the simple premise you’re originally given.

There’s things this game does that I think hit me hardest as someone struggling with mental issues a few years back. I only really got over it last year, and I think the lessons this game gived helped me in some way. Hopefully, if you’re in a similar boat, you can at least get a new perspective from this game. Or just enjoy something unlike anything else on the platform.

Gotta appreciate the smaller devs, creating something from the heart in a way you’d never expect.

This game is an achievement for the folks at Id. While it’s not hard to make a Doom game in this day and age (Fans do it all the time) trying to translate the Doom experience in the modern day without it feeling off is a tough balance to hit.

I think it says something that, after the development of Doom 4 was canned, they didn’t really return to this franchise until many years later. Instead working on their other IP’s in that time.

Doom 2016 feels like a project the team knew HAD to come out now. When the FPS genre was being oversaturated by the same type of game over and over, and when they already successfully switched it up with their recent Wolfenstein instalments, it felt like the right time.

Doom 2016, from the experience of someone starting with the game, doesn’t feel tied down by its legacy in any way. It’s a new experience that doesn’t require you to know about or have played the older games. At the same time, it’s a great for anyone familiar and especially those who played the original releases, getting to see the enemies, levels, weapons and more translated to current day.

The fanservice is also not super in your face either. The game doesn’t even hint at it, but each level hides a retro style room that’s super well hidden, even unlocking older stages for you to play for finding it!

The gameplay though is where this game shines. They were able to keep the fast pace of the original by making you way faster than any other FPS character at the time. It allows you to run around enemies while climbing, jumping, and making the most of your Arsenal to bring down the hordes of hell. And you have to be moving constantly, cause the enemies are even more aggressive here than ever. They’ll chase you to the ends of the earth if you let them.

I felt myself falling into the grind of constantly switching weapons, running for ammo, switching to the chainsaw to take down annoying enemies when I was low on ammo, and just playing as aggressively as possible. It’s infectious how this game naturally leads you towards this play style, punishing you for doing any less.

The music did help with keeping this feeling going, though I feel like the Switch version’s audio had some minor issues at times so it came out a bit weird on my end. But it wasn’t that bad.

Overall, an amazing way to bring back a game like this, showing the appeal of an FPS that’s made to actually be fun.

Let me just start by saying this. Xenoblade has been a series I’ve had a weird experience with. Xenoblade 1 was once the game I thought perfection was, but over the years I’d find my tastes change and would soon find it lacking in many areas.

Xenoblade X was my first game I ever properly played in the series and it took me a while to warm up to it and it’s differences. Xenoblade 2 was a game I kind of avoided for years before being convinced to check it out. It soon became my second favourite game of all time.

So…for all I know, this opinion could change within the next few years. But for now, this game holds a special place for me. And I feel confident in calling it a masterpiece.

This is not something I could say for any of the games before it. Xenoblade 2 had a great story, but was held back by rushed aspects and divisive artstyle which I can understand, if not as bothered by it as most.

And Xenoblade 1, for how impressive it was on a technical level, unfortunately doesn’t hold up as well as I remembered in how it handles its story. And the gameplay would only be improved from this game forward.

So Xenoblade 3 feels like the best of all these games, just about. The story, in my opinion at least, was well made and had me genuinely emotional at several moments. That’s mainly due to the writing being much better than ever before, feeling like the English localization was given free reign to mold the characters into people who feel real and relatable.

It’s an emotional core that attaches you to the struggle these characters deal with, experiencing their happiness, sadness, relief, regrets…it was hard not to crack a smile at every charming thing they said.

The gameplay was also super fun to get into. It was a lot at first, but the game for the most part is balanced enough to give you breathing room, as long as you know how the classes work and how best to use them.

It’s a battle system that evolves as you grow stronger, giving more options throughout and leading to a result that’s chaotic, but understandable cause of how much you’ve learned about every single part of it. Organized chaos, if you will.

The world at first felt very linear, but I found by just going off the beaten path it can open up a ton and reward you with so many amazing sights and hidden goodies. It’s insane how many cool stuff you’re allowed to just…never see in this game.

That goes doubly for side content. The side quests in this game are similar to the main story. Well written and charming to go through. The characters don’t just stand and nod to what’s happening, they actually interact and have witty lines talking about what’s going on.

The music is probably the part that’ll grow on me the most as time goes on. It’s not as bombastic or energetic as 2 or even 1’s, but I don’t think it’s trying to be. This isn’t a world with a bustling society. It’s a land of war and barren lands made up of ancient relics from past games. It has a melancholy feel that gives the game weight to its narrative, which is already very heavy in its subject matter.

If I had any issues, it’s three main things.

1. There’s a weird lacking of post battle dialogue. In every past game, you’d sometimes have the party members have a small exchange after battling an enemy which can be pretty fun. This game though has none of that, so you’ll often hear the same recycled lines countless times.

2. The chain attack theme, while great, is unfortunately a bit annoying during specific story fights where the tone is supposed to be much different. It caused me to often avoid activating it cause of that fear of losing the tension. Thankfully, this is something that could easily be fixed with an update, so hopefully this ages badly.

3. And, not to spoil anything, but the final boss has a big issue with how it’s designed. If you lose at any point in it, you have to do the entire boss over again. It’s not bad, but it’s obvious the first phase wasn’t meant to be replayed multiple times, and I really hope this is something addressed in an update as well.

At the end of the day though, this game still hit me harder than any other has to my memory. It’s an insanely well crafted experience taking the best of the series and bringing it together into a definitive package. Xenoblade 3 is a masterpiece, and I’m so glad it got the chance to exist in spite of the series rough beginnings.

I couldn’t beat this game, sadly. For years I’d pick it up and put it down, but only now did I get stuck at some point where I couldn’t progress, basically softlocking me…and I decided to finally stop trying with it.

Sands of Time is a very impressive game, don’t get me wrong. The base mechanics work and can be satisfying to get right.

The issue I have is mainly with the rewind function. More times than not, I found it very cumbersome to wait for it to rewind, or sometimes do it multiple times cause I started at a bad moment. For me, I often would just wait after falling to die normally, cause at least I can start from a square one state.

So it kinda hurts the experience when a major mechanic is something I just wish didn’t exist. And that can also apply to the combat which I legitimately hated. It was super simple, but somehow kept irritating me with how random the enemy attack patterns could be. It turns every battle into a game of “What attack do I use to cheese this?” cause that’s the best way to end them quickly. Maybe it was intentional, but whatever it is wasn’t fun at all.

Also, maybe it’s the age of the game, but the audio mixing is so fucking bad. I want to hear what characters are saying, but the music and sound effects are so loud compared to their voices so I can barely make out any of it. And there’s no subtitles, so you really can’t get around it easily.

So yeah, even if this game has some positives, it just frustrated me in too many ways for me to enjoy. I gave it many chances too, but alas…though, I am going to give the sequel a shot since I hear it is better in many ways. I’ll just have to see if that’s accurate or not.

This game improves on AC2 in many ways while standing out as its own experience because of the unique features and setting it boasts.

Rome is a great setting that was very memorable, although it could be a bit annoying to navigate at times cause of certain quirks with the fast travel and terrain in the field areas. Not to mention trying to sort and sift through my map icons. Even in a more moderately sized game, they still can’t help filling every crevasse with something.

My biggest plus was probably the combat. While 2 had a simple combat system that kind of just existed, Brotherhood goes for a more rewarding combat system where you can string kills together, as long as you stay aware of your surroundings so to counter any attacks coming your way. It has tons of small changes, like wielding secondary weapons on top of medium weapons and knives. Not to mention the Crossbow being the gun but just better. It’s probably a very cheap weapon for stealth, but I don’t care. It was fun to use.

I did enjoy the story here too, being focused on Ezio’s role in the brotherhood as a leader. Ezio works as a character cause he shows the evolution of a normal person into an assassin, and the things he learns and accomplishes in the brotherhood.

After playing AC2 again, it was cool to go back to the game I missed out on and see what many consider one of the greatest games in the series. So I agree? Maybe. But I won’t deny it was fun despite the usual grievances of these Ubisoft games.

Metroid Dread is truly the game we’ve been waiting for for more than a decade. The whole trackage screams quality, from the stunning environments, beautiful animations, and smooth gameplay.

In fact, yes, let’s just say that Dread is the most fun Metroid game to simply move around in. All the tools you have to use make getting from one place to another fun in of itself, and speedrunning is probably a blast cause of it.

And the boss fights take advantage of this, expecting you to use all you have at your disposal or else. It incentivized me to be more creative with how I used my items, and made taking out these tough bosses even more of a treat than usual.

Dread doesn’t overstep the boundaries of past games in story, but the presentation of said story carries what little it has and makes certain moments more powerful for it. MercurySteam handled Samus well as a character, and I think most fans can say…that’s all we really needed at this point.

Until Prime 4, I’ll be happy just knowing that both facets of Metroid are being worked on, all while looking forward to whatever these devs have next. God, I love this series.

I’d heard a lot of great things about the Batman Arkham series, so I wished to try one out eventually.

That time is now, as I have beaten the main story and can safely say that I really enjoyed it! From the start, I was amazed at the stuff they were able to do on the Wii U. Sure, it’s noticeable where they cut corners, but it wasn’t that distracting for me. (I really don’t care about games running perfectly.)

As for the game itself, it’s honestly stunning in so many aspects. The attention to detail on the environments, the atmosphere of Arkham City that’s as beautiful as it is ruthless…it really pulls you into the fictional setting of Gotham better than I ever thought it would.

I also loved the writing and narrative. Paul Dini being as experienced as he is made every piece of dialogue way more charming than it has any right to. Especially from the basic grunts just talking in the streets. And the main plot was great, having some really good direction and…usually giving certain villains time to shine. (Two Face is crying in the corner)

And the gameplay, while not entirely my thing, was surprisingly good! I at least didn’t find the hand to hand combat annoying and it stayed relatively challenging. I usually preferred stealth though, and luckily the game gave me plenty of those sections to satiate that thirst.

I was worried they might be a bit too easy, but the last few were definitely more challenging, which alleviated that issue pretty quickly. I think Normal was a great first difficulty for someone like me, so I had enough leeway to not get stuck on certain parts for too long.

Anyway, yeah, I can see why this game is so heavily revered. I will definitely go back and try the first game, and maybe even the next two as well. It was a blast, and I know at some point I’ll be in the mood to take control of the Dark Knight once more.