I had a hard time with this one. after 10 hours of playtime I finally came to the conclusion my time with Metroid Prime felt more like a chore than something to look forward to. I don't need to spend my free time to arbitrarily complete this game and this game doesn't deserve that either. Because I can kind of understand why people would praise Metroid Prime. But the gameplay loop didn't do anything for me. It's hard to say if this was a personal headspace thing, because I've loved some of the metroidvanias I've played in the past. But the backtracking/exploration rarely felt adequately rewarding to me and the combat didn't supplement this frustration in anyway like hollow knight or the first dark souls game did. I'll likely come back to this at some point. It's a game worth re-evaluating. But I definitely need some time away from it.

One of the best couch co-op experiences I've had. It's clear how much care and attention to detail has been put into all aspects of this game. The artwork is particularly impressive. I love how detailed the environments are. You can infer so much about May and Cody's life just from looking at all the junk they have in their house. I think that's pretty neat. It's so much fun figuring out how best to interact with the environments and rely on player 2 in order progress. Most of the odd platforming tools are really cool and feel good to use. I'm quite fond of the hammer and nails, as well as the garden tools.

I think the story caused me some dissonance. It's quite hard for any art medium to tackle the collapse of an individual interpersonal relationship in a way that feels nuanced and real, on top of this It Takes Two is a game that is still trying to maintain it's purpose as a piece entertainment that won't alienate a general audience. I don't think it always works, though the open ended nature of the ending feels appropriate. With all that being said I do typically like the usage of therapy in storytelling. Character introspection is just something I really like to see and therapy is an easy way to relay that info to an audience, and it leads to some of the more cathartic moments in the game.

As someone who's formative video game experiences were made up mostly of JRPGS, life sims, and one visual novel (I'm not gonna talk about that one) Persona 5 is pretty much everything my childhood self would have ever wanted in a video game and that's something the me of present day really appreciates and takes great joy in. I love this game.

Persona 5 has the best turn based battle system I've ever encountered in an RPG, Not only are the battles fast and engaging but the possibilities for customization and tactics are wild and it's something I would love to play around with more on future playthroughs. The life sim elements were fantastic too. I loved building relationships with other characters and the gameplay loop of figuring out which day to day tasks to do in order to improve your stats when you weren't in the middle of a palace is quite soothing. I'm going to miss coming home at the end of the day to sit at my computer to study and do laundry.

However, regardless with however much a piece of media or art resonates with me, this is the case with film, books, music, pretty often there's one or two aspects of the work that I don't like or out right bug me. Persona 5 is no exception to this.

The story is juvenile, incredibly so. It was a real turn off at first but I actually really started to like it after awhile. It was kinda campy, and surface level and not subtle and silly and I had a lot fun with it. I don't want to sound like I'm downplaying the writing when I say this. As it's clear every element of the world in Persona 5 is purposefully utilized in the script, the story might be silly but it's well constructed. For the most part I could turn my brain off and really enjoy myself. This was an easy thing to do, because of how much I just loved observing the characters interacting. But for me personally, that surface level storytelling stops being fun when I start to see it blindly go against what it thematically is trying to represent. Persona 5 is a story about liberation. About acknowledging hypocrisy, about stopping it so that hypocrisy and abuse of power doesn't continue harming people. And I think the way this game treats its female cast is completely misaligned with what it is trying to say thematically.

it's a small aspect of the game all things considered. (Though to be fair my opinion might have been much harsher had I not dared to touch the Kawakami confidant with a 10 foot pole.) Despite this I can't help but really adore this game. Even if some parts of it leave a bad taste in my mouth.