I was highly anticipating this game for years but I never expected it to be so amazing. Just as a baseline it takes all the elements from Pikmin 1,2, and 3 and brings them back with tons of quality of life and usability updates to boot. Miss the caves from 2? They are back and better than ever, filled with tons of different enemies, bosses, and thoughtful situations to work through. Love the multitasking abilities from 3? Also back and improved by the inclusion of the dog Oatchi who is an unstoppable force. Like the time constraints of 1? Let's just say there is some stuff in here that will be right up your alley.

Alongside all of that are new additions as well, first off having some new pikmin types obviously keeps things fresh and the ice pikmin are a lot of fun to use in combat and problem solving. Glow pikmin aren't in the normal rotation of pikmin but that doesn't make them any less fun to use, their ghostly powers are only used in the new night time missions which are a pikmin spin on tower defense. There are a little over a dozen of these and they are pretty short so they function very nicely as a pallet cleanser to shake up the gameplay.

The new dandori challenge caves achieve this as well by taking what would be normal caves and turning them into fun challenge rooms. Sometimes you need to try to get all the treasures within a short amount of time, or maybe you have to battle an AI in a pikmin battle challenge. These different modes shake things up but aren't so prevalent or long that they ever got stale to me. Add in a a neat hub world and a couple good size bonus modes with great rewards and you are looking at 30 hours to get 100% which felt like the perfect runtime to me.

A perfectly fine game. It's on the short side, but I appreciate that it doesn't feel a need to overstay its welcome. Atelier Marie Remake is full of uncontrollable charm through its captivating artstyle and illustrations, as well as the soundtrack that entrances you in the Atelier world. The quests in the game are nice and give you meaningful rewards, and the battle system is pretty easy to understand and get into. Nothing too complicated or full of endless tutorials. With my experience in other turn based games, this one is a nice change of pace as it falls into a more relaxing type of vibe that I'm not familiar with in RPGs. This was my first Atelier game and I think it's a fine starting point from my own experience.

Starfield is a complicated game to talk about; yes it is a brand new Bethesda RPG and yes there are pitfalls and trappings that come with that, but I truly believe that Bethesda punched way too far above their weight, and what resulted is a very confusing game full of bizarre design choices and oversights, as well as technological hiccups that come with refusing to use anything but a 30-year-old game engine.

First, the positives:

The gunplay is really improved and feels great compared to their previous games. Animations are great all around and graphically the game can be a bit of a looker sometimes. The biggest standout is the writing, Bethesda finally managed to create a main narrative that's genuinely engaging and makes me want to interact with it instead of literally doing anything else. Faction Quests are stellar, with some of the best writing and quest design seen in a Bethesda RPG yet.

Now the negatives,

Exploration in Starfield is boring and fundamentally useless. The only use for exploration is to mine for rocks to craft shit, in which said crafting only really spread its wings 40 hours into the game after I had specced into some things that had allowed me to even RESEARCH the schematics needs to then craft. There is no reason for you to go out and explore planets, they are filled with the same alien creatures or are just complete barren wastelands with some rocks around for mining. There is no need for you to interact with the hundreds of planets and moons other than for mining. The intimacy you the player would have with a Bethesda map is gone, the days of getting distracted by "what's that over there?" are gone, replaced by poor procedurally generated outposts and scanning wildlife and random structures. That's not even mentioning the complete lack of ground vehicles or enhanced traversal methods, The game expects you to run around on foot to these areas which takes an exorbitant amount of time for something that is ultimately pointless in execution.

Also, because Bethesda uses a 30-year-old engine that's built with toothpicks and spit, there is no real seamless experience. The amount of load times and an overreliance on fast travel is frankly embarrassing and directly contradicts facets of Bethesda game design seen since Morrowind. The adventure is going from point A to B, and what I encounter in between is replaced by menus and fast travel. No longer is it a tool, but a crutch to circumvent engine limitations. It is the equivalent of driving a really nice sports car but you hit every red light on the road.

Loot is also something that is severely in need of a redesign. I'm starting to believe that Fallout 4 was the worst thing to happen to Bethesda. I have no attachment to a "Refined Orion" gun that does 15% extra damage to aliens. They perfected the loot system in Skyrim and replaced it with garbage Borderlands procedurally generated loot that just really fucking sucks. You can keep the weapon and spacesuit crafting tables where I can add mods and stuff to my equipment, but please, enough with the rarities and randomly generated attachments and bullshit. It detracts from how I engage in your game. Why am I going to bother looting if I have to spend a couple of minutes deciphering the loot and comparing it to what I already have?

Those are my current biggest complaints, things that probably can't be solved by extensive modding.
Smaller issues include:
- The fact that you cannot craft any Med Packs or Trauma Kits in the game, at all.
- The Builder mode lacks snap angles, instead, I have to fine-tune tune click my mouse button, and pray to God the bed I'm placing straightens out and is not on a slight angle.
- No Builder mode on ships
- Research Tables aren't a permanent fixture in every ship and instead, I have to guess what Hab room contains what crafting table because the shipbuilding menu doesn't tell me.
- No FOV slider

I have no doubt that in 2-3 years, Starfield is probably going to be great with Expansions, DLC and Modding remedying things or adding new features I didn't even think I would want. But as of right now, there is a lot to be desired with the vanilla Starfield experience, and I am praying to whatever God will listen that the Fallout 4 loot system doesn't affect The Elder Scrolls VI.