Few games can marry the concepts of fun and difficulty well, yet Katamari Damacy in its most recent form did so to an exceptional level. No levels in Katamari's short four hour plus campaign felt like a walk in the park, yet they never felt too stressful. I always had to keep an even mind on what I was doing, but the natural progression of "keep finding the bigger thing" made the game enjoyable as there was never a mystery as to what to do and where to go. At first upon loading into a level I would look at the timer and groan before quickly realizing how I could snowball the points I had into even bigger numbers before the level would end.

The simple gameplay loop of just rolling (with some initially awkward controls) never got old because of the length of the game and extremely well crafted level design. Open areas lead to even bigger areas with bigger items to join the Katamari, and you were rewarded when you used your size to scale walls or roll over larger objects. Everything felt "just right," all the way from the beggining of the game to the last level.

Another great highlight to the short but sweet experience is the music, which equipped me with a smile that I couldn't put away. Everything was so bubbly and cheery, and wouldn't overstay its welcome.

Katamari Damacy Reroll is a great experience that is sure to bring you joy.

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is an absolutely poor attempt at a JRPG on just about every front, which is a shame because I was initially very interested after watching gameplay of what seems to be a unique and gratifying combat system. The combat however, was woefully undelivering on what made it seem so fun, which is unfortunately the first of many things wrong with the game.

To start; the character in Caligula Effect are one-note JRPG anime mumbo jumbo with absolutely zero depth. If you've played character driven RPG's like Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption, Final Fantasy VI-X, and even Persona 4 & 5, you're familiar with what an engaging and personable cast of characters feels like in an RPG. They are people worth fighting alongside, people who supply memorable experiences and have depth beyond what the protagonist does. In Caligula Effect, you have none of that. This game is trope galore, with resident "Angry and stupid but has a heart of gold," "The Futaba #Socialmedia keyboard warrior," "Male tsundere," the "EEK! Female Character," and nobody's favorite, "The Silent Protagonist." You've seen all of these characters before, and none of them provide any depth to the game throughout the story. About halfway through the game it came to my attention there was a social link system, if its that hidden that is not a good thing. After completing a few of the early social links, I quickly determined that going through each person's story was a complete waste of time.

Caligula Effect's story could be cool, and on a surface level the whole "people chasing an idyllic world that they wish not to leave" is pretty neat. However, when you add in the fact that it's run by two Hatsune-Miku-esque vtubers that have little to no depth, it quickly becomes uninteresting. The AI that follows your party is extremely annoying, and her forced humour detracts from a lot of the emotional moments of the game. Going from dungeon to dungeon with no hub world or moments of downtime really just... sucked, but given the lack of quality in the rest of the game, I'm sort of thankful. I can't imagine having to spend more time playing this game. I'm still generally unsure why the story gets player to move from location to location, as its not sensical and adds nothing to the overarching story. It's basically just "new location xD." There's one point in the game where you are meant to make a decision that drastically changes how you play through the next parts of the game, however it was so unsensical and the person enticing you to do so makes such a poor case, I couldn't imagine doing it.

The environments of this game are extremely drab and boring to traverse, and honestly quickly becomes taxing to do so. From the first "dungeon" to the last, you spend your storybeats walking down what feels like the same recycled hallways with soulless enemies (which are the exact same throughout the entire game) ad nauseum. Every mini-objective within the dungeon had a "your princess is in another castle" storybeat. Think you have gotten to the objective and can continue to the area boss? Nope, you have to find four different keycards to open the first door, after which you'll have to fight three different minibosses, and after that you'll have to collect two keys to open the last door. It's like this throughout the games many monotonous dungeons, and it never feels rewarding. I dreaded going to the objective marker because I knew it meant that I would have to embark on some new menial task. Everything when it comes to moving in dungeons felt like a slog, the areas were massive and there was never, not even once, a point a to point b traversal. If your objective looked like it was in front of you, that meant you actually had to curve around the entire map a couple times, fight the same enemies for what felt like forever, and eventually get to the next storybeat. Not even the fun music could save dungeons from their heightened level of boredom and dragged out length.

Combat in this The Caligula Effect: Overdose is what initially drew me in, I saw Youtube reviews and watched on Steam's previews to see how intricate the combat looked, however playing the game "the correct way" just felt like you were shorting yourself. It seems the intention is to select your moves, and use the future play-out the game provides to adjust accordingly to enemy movement, and to create combos. It was fairly early on in the game where I realized that I could just spam the basic attack for my protagonist and hit auto for the rest of the party. This method lasted from then all the way until the end of the game, I'm not even kidding or exagerating. Most bosses ended on the first turn of using what seemed the equivalent of a "limit break" or "ultimate" attack" for each party member. I played on normal and lack of difficulty or need to pay attention to the game's mechanics felt unfulfilling.

If you have an opportunity to play The Caligula Effect: Overdose or any other game, I cannot recommend picking this.

Final Fantasy III: Pixel Remaster is a beautiful love letter to the era just before Square Enix broke into the JRPG sphere as the golden standard, just before Final Fantasy became a worldwide phenomenon and before making the most critically and commerically lauded games of all time.

It plays like an old game with standard turn based combat and world traversal barriered by story progression with all of the charm and nostalgia that games of that era bring. What the Remaster does so successfully is touch up all the visual and audio elements to make playing it just as joyful in modern times. I loved running through new zones and dungeons on my computer that were full of luscious pixel color and a fully orchestrated soundtrack that gave each and every little area its own unique style. Characters, monsters, and cities all have a new breath of life thanks to this, and it makes the 20 something hour experience all the merrier.

Storywise Final Fantasy III is nothing special, it's more of the early Final Fantasy "four heroes must collect crystals and save the world from darkness," which has a benefit of not being overbearing or confusing, but not being too special either. The characters you meet and villains you fight along the way don't have too much personality to them but... that's okay? Given the time of this games release it makes sense, and playing it now for the first time I never felt like the game's lack of compelling story was a real detriment, but moreso perfect for what the game wants to achieve.

The only knocks I could give FFIII that I thought genuinely took away from the game are the excessively high random encounter rate (which seemed to trigger every three to five steps in dungeons) and the lack of direction in the second part of the game. These are two gameplay elements that were normal at the time so it makes sense, but they do take away from a modern gaming experience.

Heavy Rain is a poorly written game with a poor voice cast, convoluted and messy controls, and an altogether drab environment.

This is without a doubt the worst game I've experienced from David Cage and Quantic Dream, which is good because that means with Beyond Two Souls and Detroit Become Human that there has been some serious growth.

None of the characters in this game were likeable or enjoyable to listen to, and sounded like they were being coerced to read their lines. The "SHAUUUN" and "JASOOOOON" memes don't do how bad that line is actually delivered, like it sounds EVEN WORSE in the game, especially with how prevalent it is. Scott sounded unmotivated and preterrbed with every new character he conversed with, Madison sounded like she was bored, and Ethan Mars just sounded... lame?

The mystery and narrative in this game isn't compelling either, nothing within the newfound plot points or unveiled story sequences make me feel like I'm closer to solving the mystery, and I sure didn't every feel motivated to go on to the next chapter.

Gameplaywise this game is also a mess, with the most mind numbing button press sequences imaginable. Want to press four buttons to sneak under some wire? This is your game. Want to pick up a flower? Better be ready to mash x and y while also holding right bumper and left trigger.

Seriously, this game misses on just about every account.

Of all the the video games that exist, Metroid Dread is certainly one of them. I will admit, this was the first Metroid/Metroid styled game that I've ever played, and I purchased this knowing that the genre would be completely unfamiliar to me, and after playing Dread I think that was a mistake.

There are things in Dread that are just so damn cool; the darker lore/story, music, and visuals make Metroid a unique IP within the usually jubilent and friendly Nintendo gamesphere. Immediately upon starting the game you feel like you're stuck in a space horror film like Alien, which is a feeling that I haven't experienced in a game in quite a long time.

The first few hours are fun, bosses aren't too hard and the progression from one area to the next feels natural, however just a few hours into the game, that evaporates. Bosses become painstakingly difficult, movement through the map becomes a chore, and there's next to zero indicator of where you should go. I know that last point is a hallmark of these style of games, but I feel like it could at least either give a hint or be a quick "oh I have this I should go here" moment, however that doesn't exist.

As the game went on I dreaded (pun intended) any new boss fight or area, because I knew there would be a nauseating fight to come, I knew there were be more mechanics that I'd have to die to for a considerable amount of time before I learned the exact frame I needed to jump or roll because doing it one to early or late would result in three health bars being taken away and a re-try in order. The two-hit combo of deceiving health bars making you feel like you had more health than you really did and easily missable Quick Time Events (QTE's) really irked me.

All in all Metroid is an amazing IP with some awesome lore and narrative within and Samus is a great character, however the draconian boss fights and awkward map tracking leaves a sour taste.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a sizable step down from its 2013 predecessor in almost every way.

The setting was pretty boring and one note, the Siberian snow gets real old real quick, and lacked the variety of the jungle that the first (reboot) game had. In the same vein, the story also did nothing to inspire, not to say the previous game had an innovative or memorable story, but it felt more true to the character Lara was. Here, the story that traces back to familial root could be good, however it lands fairly flat, especially as the game goes on.

Gameplaywise it's the same as the previous entry, so nothing reinventing the wheel there, however fights against the latter enemies felt quite tedious, though against the normal goons it played out a little better.

Lara came across as a much better character in the 2013 Tomb Raider, hungry to make a name for herself with a ragtag cast of likeable characters. In this release, she's still a great protagonist, however her journey doesn't feel as inspired, even though it should be, as she shares the same mission as her father.

I still prefer this series to Uncharted though, that comparison has probably been made quite a bit, because of the freedom of gameplay in platforming and combat, as well as Lara's character.

Halo 4 is the greatest gaming letdown I've ever encountered. It's a complete disservice to fans of the series who had been there since Combat Evolved first hit stores.

Nothing about this game is good; the convoluted and unecessary plot, abhorrent enemy design, boring map design, one note environments, Master Chief speaking way too much, and the absolutely horrible weapon pallette.

It's such a bad game from start to finish it's really hard to put into words, and to boot the multiplayer is somehow worse than the campaign.

I can not recommend this game to anyone.

A good touch up of some 3D platforming classics that easily show their age. If you're not interested in 100%'ing then this will be a fairly short playthrough.

Crash 1 has some ruthless levels and awkward jumps that really grinded my gears, Crash 2 and 3 were much easier and more relaxing though.

Visually it's nice and vindictive for those that played the originals, however only running at 48 FPS on PC was kind of rough.

I am sad now.

One major benefit of this game coming out when it did is it now has a much better engine and runs extremely well, and the great music comes through extremely crisp.

Another short fantastic piece of storytelling and gaming from the ever so amazing Kan Gao. I'd heavily suggest playing To the Moon and Finding Paradise first to get the most context for certain characters within the story and the reason this story hits as hard as it does.

The game starts off a little lighthearted, but eventually descends the player into an ocean of waterworks that will remind them about the beauty of life and how much uncertainty we live through. Seriously, Kan's output in this series has been nothing short of excellent, I can't wait to see what he works on next.

Tales of Berseria is an absolute dumpster fire on all levels that is so impressively bad, I'm suprised I finished
It's cons are so long that you could write a novel on it:

-Voice Acting: This cast was the most abhorrently and intolerable English voice acting in a video game, it puts even the worst of anime dubs to shame. Bienfu, Laphicet, Velvet, Magillou, and Zaveid are impossible to listen to and take even somewhat seriously. It sounds like they're doing the intentionally worst job they could.

-Characters: The characters and their one note tropes are all awful, especially when you play as the Tsundere Velvet. Playing a character that is as boring and full of monotonous mumbo jumbo as her for ~60 hours makes for an all encompassing bad time. Your main party is filled with some extremely tropey characters that have zero redeemable qualities, especially becasue they all turn to comic relief throughout the story yet none are funny and definitely not endearing.

-Environment: This game reeks of low budget JRPG with visible skybox boundaries and extremely low res copy-paste zones. Running from area to area and seeing the same drab of barren wasteland with repeated textures is a kick to the groin. You're not rewarded for progress in the game or grinding because every single damn area feels the same. There's no area that feels or looks anything special, which is impressive because even FFVII managed to do that 20 years before this game came out. From start to finish the game just looks like a drag. The towns feel like lifeless low budget trash with the basic NPC's filling the areas and recycled building assets all over. I'm not asking the game to be hyper-interesting in every nook and cranny but man does it feel like a chore to explore. Also there are too many enemies EVERYWHERE which makes running around the areas even more mind numbing. Because of the nature of non random encounter JRPG's, I like to fight every enemy in my path so that I can stay at a proper level, however in Berseria I realized too late that this was a miserable idea. There are tons and tons of enemies per zone that are have uninspired designs and require the same strategy to beat (see the "gameplay section".)

-Gameplay: Berseria's gameplay loop is legitimately the worst in a video game that I've ever played. From hour one to hour fourty, my gameplay loop literally did not change. I'd run into an enemy, literally slap my hands on the arrow keys, and would be victorious. There is legitimately no reward to learning the combat, if that can even be done, because you can just as easily run through the game by mashing any "combo" you want. I got to hour fourty five-fifty before realizing the game had an auto battling system, which I'm thankful for because otherwise I wouldn't have finished the game and got to catch up on some TV I'd been wanting to watch.

Story: I lost interest in the story after the intiial sequence because I soon realized it was generic JRPG good versus bad with some extremely unecessary filler arcs and convoluted lore thrown inside. Seriously, there was absolutely nothing captivating about the story or the character motivations to complete their journey.

Tales of Berseria, as someone who played it as a new person to the series, is one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had and erased any thought I had about playing the other Tales games.