I had a blast replaying Fire Emblem Echoes because it is my FAVORITE fire emblem game. Alm and Celica continue to be my favorite characters (they are my children) and surprisingly, Fernand is in my top 3 now all because his english va is Ray Chase and I had little knowledge about va's back in 2017. I LOST MY MIND WHEN I REALIZED FERNAND WAS RAY I HAD A FREAKING MELTDOWN Ray Chase is one of my favorite va's :,) (i had an overall meltdown when i realized how stacked the va cast was but ray chase was on a whole other level)

The music? I'm eating it. that's a fucking 10-course meal right there.

The art? I'm also eating that. Hidari's art is so scrumptious and works so well for the remake because it invokes a sense of nostalgia. It's warm and welcoming.

I love Alm and Celica so much. They both want to save Valentia and bring peace, but don't meet eye to eye. Their deep bond, trust, how much they care for each other ;-; IM GENTLY HOLDING THEM

As much as I love this game to death, it left me thinking about what could be improved. Supports could be improved. Three Houses really spoiled me with support and helped me realize this. Supports could be longer and that could really help flesh out a lot of the characters. Faye's a good character, but all she's known for is her love for Alm. Alm's support doesn't do much and neither does Silque's, stunting her as a character. If you recruit Faye to Celica's team, you get no support conversations, making her very basic and just there to deal damage. Genny is kind of the same way. If you fail to recruit Sonya, she's kind of just there. The same with Berkut, Rinea, and Fernand who have a lot of potential. If there were more supports or memory prisms to dive deep into the character, oh wow then the characters would be so much more complex and intriguing. (So many ideas are buzzing around in my head AAHHHHHHHH)

The dungeon crawler mechanic is really unique and I think it should be in future FE games. Echoes integrate characters from archanea, which expands the world-building and I love it when games do that. Knowing there are characters from other lands opens up Valentia rather than isolates it (and the fact that you can go to archanea in act 6). It also makes me interested in playing the original. I want to get to know these characters more from what I discovered from the supports. One day I'll explore archanea.

For now I'm going to think about Fernand and the game and the doc I'm going to write. Will I post it here? Maybe who knows. Or maybe I'll edit this because I have a lot of thoughts about the game.

just brilliant. amazing artstyle and stellar work on sprites (having come from previous AA games made me appreciate how far they've come in their attention to details and subtle expressions! the characters felt so alive), unbelievably good music and, of course, an astonishing story.

one of the things i loved most about this game is that it respects the player's intelligence by not dumbing things down and rewards the moments when you are attentive by not leaving plot holes and undoing all the knots it ties. i like a good Chekhov's gun, and hoo boy does this game deliver a whole damn armory.

Okay I love this thing but damn am I just bad or is this game hard as fuck? Probably a bit of both. I can't make it past the cave area.

I guess the birds will never be saved and will probably die a cold, lonely death. Oh well.

Played on NSO GBA

Stardew Valley feels like coming home.

I can't remember which playthrough I'm on, which is a rarity for me. I've revisited childhood favorites like Zelda and Mario countless times, cherishing each experience. However, as an adult, this happens less frequently. Maybe it's because modern games don't resonate with me as deeply, or maybe my gaming habits have simply changed over time. Yet, whenever I boot up Stardew Valley, it hits all the right notes. Whether I've talked with the residents of Pelican Town dozens of times or played through its events repeatedly, the game retains its magical allure. It feels like a nostalgic return to childhood gaming, a comforting experience I can enjoy every time of the year.

What's truly remarkable is the developer's commitment to continually expanding the game with substantial updates and expansions, all provided for free. Stardew Valley brims with passion and love. Despite its status as one of the most successful indie games of all time, the developer continues to pour his heart into it, enriching the experience for players. I deeply respect and appreciate this dedication, which unfortunately is no longer a given in today's gaming industry.

I could honestly ramble endlessly about this masterpiece of a game. Nearly a decade after my first playthrough, it still holds a special place in my heart and it probably always will.

bloat turns to rot

i will preface this by saying i genuinely, for the most part, had a pretty enjoyable time with this game. it was very funny at moments and some characters are really good.

aside from that? eh.

the puzzles are a major step down from 999. where 999 felt it encouraged you to think and figure things out and try different options, VLR says you must do it My way, that is the Only solution. i figured out puzzles ahead of time, but because i had not done one specific unrelated thing, to get some kind of dialogue, despite everything else being in place, the puzzle goes unsolvable. it also has puzzles that expect insane amounts from the player, and to have outside knowledge of so many things. god bless anyone who played this game on the 3ds with no internet, i would not have been able to get through it.

the characters range from pretty interesting to not wanting them to be on my screen, which is another step down from 999, in which everyone is great. using each character as a way to define endings also means that some get 'was that it?' endings, and some get the most overblown bloated ridiculous eye-rolling endings ever. i think if about 6 plot elements were taken out of this game it would have been hugely better.

the lack of personality from the player character compared to the vibrant insanity of Junpei in 999 is a shame, but ig they had reasons for it. the change from beautiful 2d sprites to the 3d models also somehow gives them a little less personality and removes the beautiful feel of 999. but i also saw dio being pinned down several times so thats nice.

the games own internal logic leads itself to fall apart, and i've yet to have any sort of feeling of satisfaction from finishing the game, which really just felt like an entire setup for the third game, which i don't want to play yet, because i am recovering from this game, which made me feel like the lowly termite i am, incapable of understanding uchikoshi's mind as i am not a higher being, which is a shame.

anyway yeah, still want to play ztd, still enjoyed 999 a lot, this just really was the schrodingers cats we made along the way

it's been weeks since i finished persona 3 fes, and yet i still find myself searching for the words to summarize how i feel about it.

this game is truly stunning in every way. the combat is layered, expertly weaving main plot theme and narrative with it's use of tactics and tartarus. the characters are independent of the mc, with the game being entirely unafraid to explore them in both flaw and strength, writing them in the most natural and real of any persona game. the protagonist is one of the strongest silent protagonists i've ever experienced, ending up as my favourite character for so many reasons, and the skill in which the writers round him out and make him a fully living being in this dark, scary world is unbelievable.

every single shred of persona 3 fes is dripping with its themes, every ending and variable in the game gives you such immense emotion and outlook, with the tone and the atmosphere never shying away.

p3's themes are treasured in my heart, and yet plays with ideas that keep me up at night with worry. it delivers on both with exceptional skill. my all time favourite persona, and a new favourite game of all time.

I played this at 13 and it was a sea change for my perspective - no other game I would readily recommend to a high schooler than this one because it so expertly talks to them at their level, unafraid to sugarcoat the real drama, frustrations, sexual paralysis, and depth of angst a teen can feel, the entire spectrum of coming into an existential self, toiling with agnosticism, and becoming aware of yourself and your limited time in such a dreadful way. it’s a post-structural treatise on a teen’s burgeoning time management skills, their ability to juggle relationships while toiling with inner conflict and secret traumas, and while it’s flaws are immediately apparent to me on replay in adulthood, it’s hard to fight the gloomy catharsis this game achieves, one I have never found anywhere else in quite the same way.