F&H2 Termina makes me question how the indie horror scene has managed to completely eclipse whatever the AAA scene has put out in the past decade. With a distinct art style and innovative gameplay it impresses even further by being a mish mash of genres that have no business working this well together. A turn based RPG survival horror with team building mechanics is such an avant garde idea. Combat that is usually replaced with insta-kills in the RPG maker horror subgenre is what gives Termina its identity. Even notable exceptions like Peret em Heru heavily dumb down the combat and give the player items to circumvent the tedium of combat. Termina however doesn't shy away from item starvation and RNG, It is a survival horror game through and through and one that is executed to perfection.

Its relationship with its prequel F&H is also one that I've rarely ever seen before, the prequel is used like a loose historical event that twists and turns depending on what source you get your information from, which is a fascinating depiction of how time corrodes and perverts stories and people that once were very real have now been reduced to mere retellings of idealized characters.

What Is Going On In Finland.

I went into P5T with mixed feelings. This is the 4th or 5th spinoff and it's been about 6-7 years since we first met the cast. For a game that was originally about 'taking your time' and letting time and experience change you, every new release aside from Royal has flattened the characters more and more. I wasn't expecting a ton of character development, nor is there any to be found.

As a Persona game there's a requisite amount of storytelling and visual novel elements so even when there's not much to say, half or more of the game takes place in dialogue exchanges. The character interactions hit all the familiar beats and the humor is there, but it never feels fresh. Ryuji and Morgana are at each other's throats, Yusuke is aloof, Haru is naive, etc. All of this feels like it's weighing the game down a bit, and I don't think the new characters or their troubles particularly carry the game. I like Erina and Kasakube well enough but there's not much substance to work with.

As far as gameplay, this game is very easy on Hard, and on Merciless it just seems to add more enemies to the point where it feels tedious instead of like a real challenge. Each character gets a "1 More" every time they knock down an enemy, and additionally you get an overpowered triangle attack, so it feels very easy to exploit these things. The only real challenge comes from beating these little puzzleboxes in as few turns as possible. It never feels like you're in any danger of actually getting killed or a game over. Instead its like the game wants you to eventually win, and come back later to get a better score. I understand some people may like gameplay loop but I think it takes the stakes out of the game.

Even if a character gets KO'd there's a baton pass so that they get replaced by someone with full HP and SP, so it can be advantageous to kill your own character. The game also has a cool spin on elemental attacks, where they work as status effects, so things like Bufu freezes, Garu knocks enemy back, and Psio hypnotizes the enemy... but it doesn't really get more complex than that and adding a few exploding barrels to the maps.

It's a very generous game if it's what you're into, and I can see why some people would love it, but it's just missing the stakes I am looking for from a strategy game.

THIS GAME IS FUCKING KINO! KICK ASS, BUILD YOUR MOVES, GET REMINDED OF FOTN, LOOK AT CUTE RENDERS OF OLIVIA, IT'S FUCKING GOD HAND, IT'S INSPIRED BY RE4 AND IT DESERVES A PROPER REMASTERED PORT, NOT REMAKE, REMASTERED PORT, MAKE IT HAPPEN CAPCOM

That above was the review I put in 2023, by that point I had gotten all the way to final boss back in 2019-2020 but couldn't beat him no matter how many tries and decided to give up on the game temporarily...hence the shelved status.

Now, as for February 16, 2024. I BEAT GOD HAND WOOHOO! And everything I previously said still applies and only so much fucking more! I love this game to bits goddd what a good piece of kino this is. Mmm-mm. I decided to start over from scratch...I had attempted this before and gotten up to Elvis 1 but not only PCSX2 had it's issues on my previous laptop but I wasn't feeling it.

This time I went back and decided what the hell, let's explore EVERYTHING besides the super optional stuff in the casino area. Afterall, I'll need all the strength I can get to beat up the final boss this time. I played much better this time and game felt easier (also helped that I played on Easy this time unlike Normal back then...or was that also on Easy?).

I arranged a better moveset, especially rapid hitting short animation stuff. Played just much more conciously with all that. Made better use of God Hand and the roulette moves. Paid attention to how hard they hit. And would you believe my previous playthough didn't have a single guard break? I had no idea those were a thing I think, I might've done 'em on occassion but I never though to simply move it to triangle instead of make it a button combo till now (especially helps that I'm playing on a Keyboard and Mouse)

Moving from controller to KBM also helped. Cuz I started this game as a PSN title on PS3, then continue with PCSX2 back then with controller....and now with a KBM as it's much more comfortable for me.

I also made sure every villager was saved and did all the fairy challenges too since I had a better idea on what to do...that familiarty of the game before and my love for it also helped.

I love those Olivia renders, who bathes with an axe? Crazy bitch!

Posion Chihuahuas are pretty cool. They're sorta like this game's Chao...though much like Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, I didn't really care for the racing stuff much. But I atleast checked it once in my 2020 playthrough.

Also can you believe Gene missed out of MVC3 cuz of Amaterasu? What kind of a god screws over another?! Damn you dog, bring him back!

Also if you want something equally as insane, awesome and in the digestable pack of just one game, I also highly recommend Asura's Wrath. Tho that one is more of an interactive anime mostly, it's still fucking awesome. That one I found uncomfortable to play without a controller though. It runs excellent on RPCS3, just make sure you get the Chapter IV DLC for the story to actually have an ending :/

Also the Widescreen and No Blur Patch for God Hand on PCSX2 is beautiful.

So once again, I'd love a Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition Quality Remaster for this...please Capcom? Without Denuvo or Enigma DRM would really be appreciated

Back in 2017, I bought this game alongside the Digital Devil Saga duology and Vagrant Story. I happened to find it at a convention and knowing I had just played Automata that year and loved that, I figured I'd pick it up. I honestly didn't even know there was a NieR game before Automata at the time, so I was pretty surprised. I started playing it, got up to seafront and had no idea how to fish and then promptly dropped it. Fast-forward to 2021, I see that a remake of the version with Brother NieR was releasing soon and I decided to go back and actually beat this game. I play through the entirety of it (besides ending D) and thought it was great, though I did have some issues with it that held it back from me loving it more than Automata. Fast-forward again to this year, I had planned to replay Automata for a while now and decided that November would be the month to do so. Before that though, I decided I wanted to replay Gestalt and see if I ended up liking it more now. Well seeing my updated rating, I'm sure you can see how I felt. This game is honestly not objectively perfect but it does certain things so well and I love it so much, that I can't give it anything less than a 10/10.

So the thing people like about NieR the most is the story. When I played it in 2021, I thought the story was good but overrated. I also somehow missed the gestalt documents at the end of the game, so that plus appreciating the story as a whole a lot more, made me realize it really is peak. A big part of the story being amazing too, are the different endings you can get. Ending A is great but the game really comes together when you go through route B. Some things get revealed to you at the end of Route A, and so there's a bunch of little changes in Route B that flip your perspective on what was going on and I just love it. You're basically replaying the 2nd half of the game all over again but because of all those little changes, I had no issue with it. There's also ending C and D and the route for those is basically the exact same as B, only the ending changes. The endings for those are great (especially ending D, holy shit does that ending feel impactful) however I can see how it would get tedious for someone playing considering it's pretty much all of the same content as route B. Either way, the story is just fantastic I think and definitely better than I once thought.

Though, the story is not actually my favorite aspect of the game. My favorite aspect is the main cast. Honestly may be my favorite cast in any game ever tbh, I love all of the main 4 so much and think they complement each other perfectly.
Weiss and Kaine are always throwing insults at each other, Weiss is always complaining about NieR's tendency to just help someone no matter what, Emil has a great affection towards NieR as seen later in the game, Emil and Kaine get along well because they both see themselves as outcasts...there's a lot of different character dynamics going on and when it's all 4 of them together they just make the perfect JRPG team imo.

The other big thing I absolutely loved was the OST. When I initially beat the game, I realized that the OST was really good but as time passed, I kept coming back to certain songs. I was listening to Gestalt's soundtrack more than Automata's and now that I've beaten it again, I can confidently say I 100% like it more than Automata. It's honestly just perfect and probably in my like top 3 Game OST's ever now. Stand out songs for me are Grandma, Emil Karma and it's other variant, Song of the Ancients, Shadowlord and more. The music is just top tier.

Another thing I really love is the gameplay changes that happen throughout the game. Besides your normal combat, there's also little sections that change things up. There's several 2D sections throughout, there's a forest area that plays out like a Visual Novel, the first visit to Emil's Mansion is basically Resident Evil with its semi-spookiness and fixed camera angles, Emil's Mansion's basement gives you this top down view that plays like Diablo, not to mention most of the bosses area bullet hells. There's just a lot of variety in the gameplay and really makes the game feel fresh.

Speaking of the core gameplay though, let's talk about the combat and the other "flaws" I see this game having. The combat...compared to more flashier, fast paced action games is lackluster. I remember it was a big issue to me when I initially played the game, but honestly it grew on me a bunch and I learned to enjoy it now. I don't think the game ever really needed super flashy complex combat and so I think it gets the job done. Plus there's something I enjoy about how chunky the combat can feel, idk I said the same thing about Yakuza 1 and the same thing applies here too.

My other biggest issue back then, and this was purely just a me thing, was I didn't like the world and it's aesthetic nearly as much as Automata's. The post-apocalyptic world in that game was my absolute favorite aspect when I played, and so to go from that to this was disappointing back then. I still much prefer Automata's world but I honestly do enjoy Gestalt's now. It's far from my favorite gaming world, though I also don't play it for that so it also gets the job done I think.

A couple small issues I did actually have with the game this time around were the bloom effects in some areas and the Exp system. I think the bloom in seafront and the fog effect in the northern plains can look kinda ugly at times, I'm sure that's probably fixed in the remake so that's really only a Gestalt issue. I also disliked how if Kaine or Emil got the finishing blow on a normal enemy, you missed out on any Exp. I hope that got changed in the remake because it can kind stink when playing here. I can also see why people would dislike all the backtracking, hell I was getting a bit burnt out myself going for ending C and D lol. But overall, I think the backtracking to old areas isn't as bad as people say. The area you go back through the most is the junk heap and even then, that area isn't too long and has banger music so I had no problem going through it several times.

Last time I played, I only did a few of the side quests that were needed to get every weapon for the latter endings. This time around, I did every single one...and while they could get very fetch-questy, I enjoyed them overall. A lot of the time there's some voiced Weiss/NieR dialogue that makes the entire quest worth it imo. The best quests overall were I Facade I thought. Most of those were very memorable, alongside the lighthouse lady ones of course.

I did also get a chunk of the trophies I was missing before, the big one being the Lunar Tear one. That definitely took a bit of effort on my part but once I finally got it, it was pretty satisfying. I still have the speedrun trophy and the weapon upgrade trophies to get so maybe I'll do those on my next replay who knows.

So yeah, is the game perfect? As I pointed out, there are some issues I can see others having and there are even some things I still wasn't a fan of in this game. But the absolutely peak story and especially peak cast and OST, just makes me want to give it a 10 and that's what I'll do for the time being. The game has a lot of heart and I think it's worth playing if you haven't already.

Anyways, next is Automata and it's been even longer since I last played that so I'm hyped to see if I'll still love it as much as I did six years ago!


Also sorry if this review is incoherent at all, writing this at 3 AM randomly lole.