Worldless will probably either grab you immediately or repulse you immediately. The otherworldly, open-space aesthetic along with relaxing platforming mixes strangely with its intense combat system.

It starts simple, banal even; But it pushes the concept further and further. Unfortunately, the things that push it the best are off the beaten path. Could maybe be a bit less oblique on some things, but I do adore the 'visual' hints the game gives for its collectibles and puzzles.

Probably the main complaint from me is I wish there was a bit more... 'real' platforming, with hazards and whatnot. It's nice to relax along the ether, flying around in endless space in a way that's reminiscent of Ori and the Blind Forest, but sometimes it can feel like you're waiting for the next battle to happen to chew into the combat, where all the mechanical density is.

Either way, an unexpected but wonderful find.

It's hard for me to really rate BG3. Much of what it is narratively and gameplay-wise is a pretty standard affair. It's a nice hook for protagonist-ifiying a bunch of characters. And, looking at each character through the lens of a DND-created player character, they're not bad. But I feel left with is... more of an achievement, than a fun videogame,e

Larian is at their best in highlighting all the maneuverability available in potions and spells and using the verticality to its best, and the world reactivity. Choices that lead into branching narratives, small choices that make their appearance known 40 hours later. It feels inexhaustible. It feels like you could play it a hundred times and still not see all it has to offer. It's a design marvel in that niche; it does things most crpgs only claim to.

But the problem in BG3 is also what it is at its core; DND. And not just DND, but 5e. The most turgid and boring form of tabletop RPG gameplay you can find. 5e, frankly, sucks. Not to say the other systems are vastly superior or anything; DND in general is pretty flawed fundamentally, but 5e, and thus Baldurs Gate 3, doesn't even get to enjoy the unbalanced madness the other versions of the game are. Even most of what is 'broken' is very tame.

I'm largely comparing BG3 to Wrath of the Righteous here, and I can't... say I enjoy it as much, despite how much of a feat the game is technologically. WOTR isn't a narrative marvel either, but there's a lot more to sink your teeth into. It explores stuff like war as a stepping stone. Hams its hyper-fantasy epic scale like it should. And while the game has faults in its gameplay side, for sure, there is so much... more to dig your teeth into. The character progression is so much more full and filled with options.

Baldurs Gate 3 feels ambitious but handicapped. It chained itself to the system where creativity goes to die. What it cares about, world reactivity, is great, fantastic even. And there's decent-to-good writing found in various sidequests, sure. But in the end, it's a game I felt more like I was more admiring than playing - where the idea is more fascinating than the game itself. So while I respect the game, a lot even, and I am deeply impressed by it, but I... can't say I 'like' it all that much. This makes sense to somebody, I'm sure.

Legion is great in many areas, but it would go onto influence the game in the most cursed way possible for the next two expansions.

Suramar was fun, legendaries were fun... once you had them all (and you didn't get dicked by sephuz' secret) and having something to do every day after the walking disaster that is WOD's world was refreshing. The beginning of the expansion was the worst of it, with the artifact power grind to get the 5% damage bonus being so profound and the legendary gap being so huge made the roulette of gear feel terrible.

But, it introduced M+, something that would go to be a huge pillar of the game going forward, the raids were all great (emerald nightmare is.... less great) and the classes were as much fun as they've ever been. A solid expansion that was a needed shot in the arm.

I don't see it.

The combat system is... fine. It's fine, if lacking in depth. Most of the cast of the game barely gets above button mashing, or cleverly disguised button mashing. The parry timings for skills and perfect dodging/blocking are INSANELY generous. But it's pretty, the controls are responsive, and everything's a nice brisk pace. It's a lot like a modern Ys game.

But the character progression is some of the most boring systems I've ever seen. Most of what you get is Attack up, crit up, crit damage up, health up, defense... slight numerical edges. No decisions or choices or customization or anything of the sort, god forbid you compare it to monster hunter, just as linear straight line of idle-game tier 'number go up' power growth.

What's worse about this, even, is it's pretty hard to feel outside of the number getting larger. The game's initial content is so laughably easy even on hard that I started feeling bad for using the Estus equivalent's the game supplies you with. So you're powering up only for the sake of breaking through stat checks; the game's easy, static difficulty lasts the >entire< story campaign.

Part of me wonders if I would like the combat more if I grinded enough to get to maniac/proud difficulties, but I find the gearing/progression part of the game too boring to do so. And the gameplay just at the base level is lacking a lot to chew on.

At the end of the day it's a game that reminds me a lot of the Tales of Arises, the Tokyo Xanadus, the Ys 7's. Just Another Action JRPG with skill cd's and button mashing. And overall, I can't say I'm impressed.

We all have 2nd chances.

Infinite wealth is a game with a pretty messy plot, honestly. Some due to common Yakuza-isms (constantly undercutting its own villains with a never-ending hierarchy, over-complicating the plot without much reason) and some due to pacing (The majority of the middle of the story is faffing around and accomplishing nothing, thinly-disguised enemy gauntlets) and some unique to this game (the major antagonists are both thematically fitting but ultimately lame as hell) but none of that can detract from an incredible cast and strong ideals.

Yakuza 8 is a game about the forgotten. The chances that we missed, the regrets that we have. The things that we, time, and society, leave behind as the days, months and years move on. Everyone has them. Some people have tons of them. We all shoulder these, and we too often tell ourselves that the time to make it right has long since past.

At large, this is a work about trying to turn back the clock, figuratively. It's about righting wrongs, living with a clear head. Many works talk of how the past can't impact the future, and that we have to live moving on from it. Yakuza 8 thinks that notion is unrealistic. Our burdens stack too high. It's a game that talks of the thing that's too often forgotten but so necessary in life; closure.

Kiryu shoulders the burdens of all the Yakuza, bemoaning what he could've done, what he could've changed. He melancholically walks through the steps of his life with the bucket list, seeing what he's done and the lives his touched, trying to regain the spirit that propelled him.

Ichiban searches for his lost mother, seeking closure not as much for himself, but for his dead father figure. Ichiban, as he always does, dying to help others, even the deceased. He also can't get his shitty proposal out of his head, wonderful dork that he is.

Away from the thematics, the banter of this game is just a delight. Listening to kiryu talk about his favorite food on the street, listening to how competitive Zhao is, Saeko's work at the bar... it's great. I could listen to them forever.

Also, about the gameplay: It's... better than Y7's, but it falls prey to the exact same problems, namely 2, both tied to the same issue.

1: The scaling of the game is such that as you go further, every fight can end with high mana dumps that do alot of damage and wipe the field instantly. All the mechanics you learn through-out the journey become more and more useless as the game gets later. Just press the big button.

2: Buffs and debuffs are pitifully weak in 90% of the encounters. Damage is such that pressing anything that doesn't do damage is a huge opportunity cost; there's very little in the way of hp sponges. This is a good thing in theory for the games pacing, but it means that I simply walked through the game and engaged very little in alot of buffs/debuffs outside of experimentation (and a little but for kunoichi and samurai which gain immediate damage for there being buffs/debuffs respectively). This system... needs balancing.

Anyways, the main reason I don't rate this game higher than 7 itself is because I find the actual plot itself pretty weak. 7's wasn't super great either, but the final conversation with the main antagonist in 7 outshines anything done in the story of this game.

But again, 8 is a game of subtext. And in that space, it deserves accolades.