It's like P3, but better. I was so excited for this remake and it delivered like I thought it would.
Amazing QoL updates (no tartarus fatigue lol) are very welcomed, and the character redesigns by Azusa Shimada are incredible. New music also bangs and is on par with the original, and all the added scenes with teammates give even more depth to the already well-written cast.
Voice acting is impressive as usual (I played with JP voices as always with Japanese anime games, but from what I heard the dub is also very good, way better than the original's), and there are much more voice lines than I remember.
Combat is also improved, with P5-style baton pass mechanic (but less broken), and addition of Theurgy, characters' ultimate attacks. It's really neat seeing the animations for these; and some hit really hard, like Junpei's second one...

I had a much better time with this than I did the original. The atmosphere maybe SLIGHTLY loses out to the original's, but it's hard to explain.
The ending is 10/10, no question the strongest of Persona's. I cry.

My biggest gripe with the game is the antagonists. Strega is good, don't get me wrong, but some missed potential I think. Ikutsuki kind of just exists. The pacing is also VERY slow, especially at the beginning. Luckily, it's Persona, so it still never feels actually boring.
Nothing like minmaxing your efficiency with social links and stats etc.
Good game, absorbed weeks of my life.

The (remake of the) introduction to the world of Rance is interesting, with a item reserve system that operates on cooldowns you have to usually pick and choose what you're going to use when you can't simply nuke your way out of it. The issue comes with how grindy it can get in the mid-to-late game, even if you chose your perks optimally. Gold is scarce and enemies give you little EXP, and an extra go to hell to the enemy that actively steals your EXP each turn in a fight and you get back less than you lost.

The story features Rance at his most asshole level, being cartoonishly cruel (including beating up a dog) and the majority of the H scenes in this game being rape or heavily imposing sex as a reward that the girls just go with (followed by half of the girls falling in love with him after). If you keep him under control, Rance only has sex 7 times at minimum in this game, with 6 of them being rape, the game celebrating 4 of them. "Okay so he may be a serial rapist but like at least he's not a serial rapist murderer" is some whack ass logic but this is an H game so y'know don't worry about it.

Some navigation is confusing but most of it made sense, and there are plenty of sidequests you can do to extend the game's length, some going really outside the box to trigger. I do wish most of them had more rewards beyond H scenes. They're good for completionism and if you're into those, but not much else.

You can't keep Sill in glasses the entire game. That is a crime.

I had to drop it, unfortunately. I got up to like midway through the final route, but I couldn't handle it anymore.
Things happen at a fairly fast pace, yet it feels slow at the same time. Every route is different, yet so similar.
All the action scenes read the same, and they're never exciting or engaging.
It's WAY too long for its own good. A big problem I have with the game is despite the clever premise and all of the jokes (which are sometimes really funny honestly) it just wears itself out and to me the payoff of the routes is never worth it.

The main heroines are all like...decent, I guess? Nanase huge wife material (and a gyaru yes please), Hinami is of course cute but most of her personality revolves around how she's (not) a loli (but her route is somehow the most emotional and the only part that got me feeling anything), and Misaki who is actually hilarious, whose route is pure nonsensical fun.
But weirdly, the FS members are miles more interesting than any of them, and they shine way more than they do. So much so that I wish they had their own routes instead.

The H scenes are extremely disappointing, btw. For something with nukige in the title and the insanely lewd things happening constantly, you'd think the H scenes would be top tier, but they're all lackluster and I skipped most of them out of boredom.

I'm disappointed because I easily COULD have loved this if it was done better; all the groundwork is there.
From what I've seen of the sequel, it looks exactly the same, and I almost surely won't read it.

The plastic car physics is an interesting idea but just ends up being punishing and frustrating where a every mistake can absolutely wreck your race.
As a kid I imagined these cars as having an actual weight and not just plastic toys, this game takes you out of the fantasy completely.

Also I find it odd that this very arcadey and floaty racer won't let you take shortcuts and teleports you back until you do the jump the way God intended.

Easy is a dull cakewalk, Normal is very brutal, mostly because of the punishing design.

I don't understand the design philosophy behind this game and sadly whatever little time I spent with it wasn't very fun.

A fun racing game that makes a really good first impression but quickly wears out its welcome.

Hot Wheels Unleashed feels like the perfect Hot Wheels game - you can collect a ton of exact replicas of Hot Wheels cars from your childhood and then take them to the courses that are made up of a bunch of orange track pieces that weave all around your basement. The driving feels surprisingly pretty good and executing a perfect drift feels great. But once the initial shock of "hey this is actually pretty fun!" wears off, the flaws become apparent pretty quickly.

While the tracks built around different environments like your basement, a skatepark, a construction site, etc. are kind of neat, it's hard to really enjoy them. The game doesn't do much with camera tricks or anything to make you feel small and you're racing through these levels so fast I don't usually notice I'm racing under a couch or driving around a kitchen sink until I crash or flip off the track. And if you’re not noticing those big background set pieces, there’s not a lot that sets one orange track apart from another orange track making the levels all feel kind of same-y and boring. The actual progression loop is built around loot boxes - loot boxes that have no problem giving you duplicates of cars you already have. Luckily, you can’t buy said loot boxes, but that doesn’t change the fact that the random car drops suck.

While the core gameplay and the idea of racing around your living room is fun, that childhood joy doesn’t last more than a couple races. Every aspect of the game feels like it’s intent on being an arcade racer but it never really hits that casual, light-hearted fun that other arcade racers have.

+ Great collection of fun Hot Wheels cars
+ It’s fun to race through tracks set up around a basement
+ Good selection of player-made content

- Loot boxes as primary form of unlocking cars
- Tracks all feel pretty samey and the environments aren’t noticeable
- Very unforgiving races
- Wonky physics
- Boring campaign
- Repetitive generic soundtrack

The best game in the series with no competition. Latter entries may have the benefit of being on more powerful hardware with proper 3D arenas, but this one is so batshit crazy with the characters going Kaioken fighting actual Godzilla demons.

The simplistic Dynasty Warriors-esque combat can make your hand cramp like a motherfucker while playing on the 3DS, but it's such an easy to pick up and play game that you could probably do a whole chapter before that starts. Characters are once again a strong point (go ahead laff) and game leans more into the relationships within their own clan members and the equivalent rival clan members.

Hikage best girl. Mirai cool as hell. Wish I was Kat. Fuck Yumi simps.