Octopath Traveler 2 was a nice surprise, as richly detailed diorama of a game that seeped soul. Each of the micro-stories worked in building out the tone of the world. The BP system is super fun, and breaking the battle systems was a great way to defeat some of the tougher bosses. The flow of combat is great, and the way the game forces you into making risky calls by letting you see an impending barrage from a tough enemy that will wipe your team makes those risky moves feel great when they pay off.

The character writing varies from story to story, but overall I loved the characters. In particular, Partitio, Throne, and Osvald were highlights. The day / night cycle and it's corresponding character skills is a really unique system, and I absolutely loved the soundtrack and sprite art.

Octopath Traveler 2 nails what it is going for, and feels like a perfect pastiche of SNES jrpgs. I really hope they keep the momentum going with a third entry.

Went into this totally blind and really enjoyed it! The art direction is beautiful, and I love the detailed sprites and attention to detail in each little plot. The diorama rpgs on display here are beautiful, and while I enjoyed some campaigns more than others, the package as a whole was a great experience and a great way to use a lot of ideas that probable wouldn't have sustained themselves across a full length JRPG. In particular, the Pre-history section got some legitimate laughs out of me, and the Edo Japan / Wild West / Imperial China chapters were all highlights. I loved the wrestling chapter, thought it was a little short. My only real complaints are regarding the two future chapters, which I thought suffered from a few pacing issues. That being said, I was never really bored, though I was happy to be done with them once the credits rolled.

This game suffers from some pretty eratic difficulty levels, which makes sense based on its age and non-linear structure, but I was pretty surprised at the huge spike in the final chapter. The game was easy up until the very end, where I had to get my ass beatdown as I grinded levels for a while to be able to finish things out. Grinding is def something I'm not averse to, but it was a bit of a momentum killer right at the end.

In general, this game was a nice surprise for me, and has sparked my interest in this concept. Would be insanely hype for Square to revive the LAL IP, and I'll probably track down a copy of octopath in the future if I can get my hands on it.

I've officially played through every mainline Mega Man game now, and enjoyed this one more than I expected I would! The gear system adds some nice depth to the classic formula, and the level design is top notch for the series. The bosses are all great additions to the canon, even if their theming is all pretty standard fair for the series.

Megaman games are the video game equivalent of listening to the ramones: it really boils down video games to their purest essence. I could be looking at random blobs and it wouldn't matter: the controls are tight as hell, the levels are expertly crafted, and it's straight to the point. Love blasting through this one. Hopefully capcom doesn't wait another decade to drop 12.

I liked this game enough that I forgot to save once I got to the wily level and had to replay half the game and I was actually kind of stoked about it. Felt great to rip through all the levels that gave me shit first try upon going back.

I was intentionally putting off playing Elden Ring as I had a fear that it would consume my life until I had completed it, and I was right in this suspicion.

I have been playing Souls games since Dark Souls 1 in 2011, and this feels like a culmination of so many of the ideas present in that game. The world is dense and mysterious, the bosses are huge and intimidating, and once again I am playing as a butt ass naked dude with a giant sword so I can roll fast.

This game has some flaws: nasty AoE moves are a valid complaint, and the hit tracking from enemies can honestly feel like bullshit, but despite these flaws nothing was insurmountable, and it felt like this game was designed to promote co-op summons more than any other souls game, for better or for worse.

I think that the world that Miyazaki has built here is something special, and the sense of awe I felt while playing this game is unmatched by anything in recent years, except Breath of the Wild maybe. The ever expanding map, the first time I ended up in Caelid after being sucked into a punishing crystal cave, seeing the Erdtree for the first time, finally making it to the bottom of the Haligtree after beating my head against it for days, the fear of scarlet rot, the constant surprises in the underground//caves//tombs: there is so much here and it is all so memorable. The density of this game is truly astonishing.

Elden Ring consumed my life for 2 months, as I had feared, and I am already accepting the fact that next time I play it it will consume my life for another 2 months.

SMT V seems to be getting a fair amount of criticism for its plot, but I played Nocturne and can say that it's about as sparse as this. I don't think that a super deep plot is something I'm looking for in my SMT game, and this game cuts straight to the core of why I personally seek out this series: it has one of the most engaging combat systems in any JRPG series, and an untouchable art direction.

The press turn system makes this game. Fusing up demons and tinkering with your team is fun, and strategizing actually matters. By the end of the game I found I was fretting over every little detail of every battle, from turn order to stats to move pool, and having an absolute blast as I got repeatedly owned by some of the tougher encounters. A real standout is the superboss required to get the secret ending, who is a true punisher and really forces you into using every trick you have learned throughout the game.

SMT V's art direction is truly untouchable. Every aspect of this game feels like thought and care was poured into it. In typical Atlus fashion every single menu oozes with life and personality. The soundtrack is amazing, and I love the synthetic sound palette they use to give everything an otherworldly, cold feeling (for real, has a game set in a desert ever felt this cold?). A real standout for me was the Cadavers Hollow theme, as well as the overworld music in the first open world area. I love how the sand sparkles when under shadow, and how each area has its own distinct colour palette. So much to take in here both visually and sonically on a design level.

The demon design and animation is unparalleled, and coming off Pokemon Arceus it really made that game look bad lol. There are so many demons, and they are all lovingly animated. Some dance around, while others flail swords or spin weapons on one of their many arms. The attack animations are beautiful, with the unique animations in particular looking great.

Finally, a lot of people are complaining about the writing in this game, but I actually found the writing to be very good in general. The demon's are all so nasty, I was always amped to run into a new one to see what they had to say. While the main story may not be what people wanted, I do think on a smaller scale the writing is amazing, with each interaction solidifying the tone of this world.

Shin Megami Tensei 5 sucked me in for 105 hours, and I would have been happy spending an additional 105 hours exploring Da'at and talking to nasty little freaks.

"What makes something a Final Fantasy game?" was a question posed to me by a friend when I told them I was planning on playing through the series for the first time. This question has stuck in the back of my mind as I've worked through the series, and as I get to ff12 I am not sure I have a definitive answer. I can say that ff12 has little in common with the other 5 games I have played in the series, though there is a thread of familiarity that would echo through when I least expected it.

The world of Ivalice feels vast, lived in, and rich with history. Towns are bustling (I cannot believe how many NPC's are in this game, and how much dialogue was written for them), the countryside is home to both breathtaking oceanfront vistas and harsh deserts. The monsters that inhabit the world are generally very inspired, and the actual of traversal of these spaces is a huge improvement on the attempt made to ditch the overworld system first seen in FFX . Ivalice feels huge, with winding roads many dark dungeons to explore. The on-foot travel allowed for a sense of scale that didn't resonate in the "showing your progress by moving a marker on a map" style of X.

The dungeon design is also great. I had mixed feelings about the dungeons at first, but as the story progressed and the spaces the party ventured to grew more complex, I came around on them. This culminates in what I can safely say has been the most challenging Final Fantasy area yet, with a truly daunting endgame dungeon that felt insurmountable. When I eventually got to the end, it felt like a true accomplishment, especially with the gauntlet of very challenging bosses that it also through at me.

The plot is where my real issue lie with FF12. I have found a lot to love as I play through this series, and one consistent standout are the characters who bind these stories together. The main cast of FF12 never really develop, and their motives did not really keep me invested throughout the game. Generally, the characters feel one note: Vaan is a street rat who longs to be a pirate, Penelo is his friend, Ashe is a conflicted deposed ruler, Basch her guard, Balthier and Fran are sky pirates along for the ride who may have some ulterior motives. The strokes for these characters are too broad, and the nuance is forsaken in exchange for the stories emphasis honing in on the large picture political plot. I found that this unfortunately resulted in story beats being confusing, as characters you barely knew listed places you had never been to, and talked of characters you had not met. This left me confused to the motives of many of these factions, and while some of the party members do get more developement in the late game (particularly Balthier and Ashe), the lack of focus on the individual characters who were agents in the broader picture left me wanting more. The story also generally suffers from a pacing issue, with a lot of the themes not being presented in ways that work in their benefit. I wish more focus was placed on the brother stuff that is going on as well, I think a great story could have been told here with a little more focus. One final note on the writing of FF12: I actually really liked the pseudo-shakespearean dialogue of 12, and think it fits well with the sweeping story they are trying to tell. Lot's of weird word choices, and overall great performances from the V/O cast (A huge, huge step up from the cringe of X).

The gambit system is great, lots of weirdness to it, which is always a plus in an FF battle system imo. Loved picking apart what was working and what wasn't, and fine tuning encounters until I was a well oiled killing machine. Enemies who cast nasty status effects keep you on your toes in the late game, and I found I was tinkering with the system throughout my playtime. The system almost works like a puzzle game, and optimizing my gambits was compelling enough to keep me playing. The job system is also amazing, and I love the flexibility it allows. I had a blast planning routes through the boards, and picking multi-class combos for my character. I ended up using the combo of Basch as a tank, Vaan as a Samurai Time Battlemage, and Fran as a bow wielding White Mage and had a blast find tuning my strat for some of the truly punishing late game boss fights.

I may still not have an answer to the question of what makes a Final Fantasy game a Final Fantasy game, but with every game the answer to "What makes a Final Fantasy game a Great Final Fantasy Game" grows less obscure. FF12 comes close to greatness so many times, and if someone told me this was their favourite I would understand, as there is so much to love here. Unfortunately, my issues with the character development and pacing put this on the lower scale of FF games for me.

Very rarely do I put a game down after a certain point. Even if I dislike a game, I enjoy seeing things through. Ori and the Blind Forest is something I really was hoping to enjoy, but after 5 hours I've set this game down and probably wont be picking it back up.

I found the controls too floaty for my liking, the checkpoint system frustrating, and the combat system laughable. The art style does nothing for me, harkening back to the days of the late 2000's post-digital illustrations that I have always found to be too saturated and emotionless.

Maybe someday I will give this game another shot, but for now it will be relegated to the digital dust pile.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus really delivered on something I had been hoping for for a long, long time. The core gameplay loop is so good, I had a blast sneaking around trying to catch as many little guys as possible, and I love how the dex forces you to switch up your team to gain research levels. I was using pokemon I would never have thought of using, and I have a newfound appreciation for a lot of mons I would have normally written off.

The plot is pretty whatever, but the big post-game battle is so sick, and I was very compelled to complete the dex just to see the big man himself.

I found the art style was generally good, nice use of colour and I thought there was a noted improvement in attack animations and Pokemon models in comparison to Sword. The soundtrack is the series best, so many great tracks. I'm not gonna bring up the technical issues and beat a horse that is long dead outside of "yeah, those suck, and are pretty in your face". While it can be distracting, I don't think that some pop-in and wonky textures is going to ruin a game for me.

Overall, this is a giant leap in the right direction. My personal ultimate version of this game would be one that is cleaned up, with an interconnected map instead of the Monster Hunter style areas, with the cut systems added back in (specifically competitive).

Dumped 80 hours into this game and when I finished up the last mission I was left wanting more. Really amped to see them expand on this concept in the future, I cannot see myself being able to go back to the old formula after this bad boy.