While I don't think this is my favorite Metroidvania I've played so far, I think it's best in its class.

Playing Hollow Knight after playing my first few Metroidvanias, rather than before, set my expectations in a strange place for the game. I've heard so much talk about it, and witnessed even more excitement for the ever-illusive Silksong. I went into it expecting a masterpiece of not only the genre, but of everything that constitutes a great game.

I liked the story, even if it seemed a bit dense at times with all the bugs whispering gibberish into my ear. I'm the guy destined to become the new John Hollow. I'm pretty sure that's obvious, so I'm not marking this as a spoiler. Okay, cool. I was led astray so many times by NPCs who, it seems, you talk to in the first 10 minutes of the game and then have to revisit in the 90th percentile??? Obviously a bit of an exaggeration, but the layering of side quests and their progression is definitely the most complicated out of most games I've played. I don't think that's a bad thing either. I think it's done well enough and more of a reason to be more present when playing the game if you care about the story and its characters a lot.

I think it's easy to sometimes get swept up in the monotony of running back and forth throughout MVs. I touched on this in my Blasphemous reviews; it's incredible how there's a point around 40% percent through these games where you're slow, and the map is big. You're aware of countless areas that are unexplored, but you're lacking the abilities to get to them. This was me more than ever on HK. I loved exploring the map, but I think it's incredibly punishing. I can't imagine someone new to MVs having fun platforming on this game in the beginning. Granted, I'm not the greatest platformer in the world, but I'm certainly not the worst. See below.

I DID NOT FINISH PATH OF PAIN. FUCK THAT. FUCK THE DEVS. SICKOS.

The art direction is extremely cohesive. I didn't feel like anything in the game was out of place. From the sprawling backgrounds, to the enemy design, and the animations, I loved the way this game looked. The environments transitioned color pallets beautifully. I adore when a game isn't afraid to go all out with the colors while still keeping with their aesthetic. The orange of the infection is burned into my brain like one of the blobs was the sun and stared at it too long. Oh, and who knew so many amazing designs could be based around bugs? Looking back, it sounds so obvious because they're like the naturally gifted knights of the animal kingdom. They're quite literally born with armor over their bodies. If any of the bugs in HK were human-sized, I think we'd be doomed.

Combat is great and so are the bosses. I think the weapon upgrade system is balanced, as it incentivizes exploration and challenges the player to fight more bosses. Magic seems OP as hell, as usual. Magic users have tiptoed the line of baby gaming for far too long. It's time we banned all uses of magic from games. But seriously, the balancing of spirit when it comes to magic and healing is well done. Healing? What's that? Seems like they only put it in the game to use outside of combat. You definitely don't want to use it in a boss fight. I think the boss is coded to go ape mode when you start channeling spirit. Once you figure that out, I think you enjoy the combat even more. It reminds me of Sekiro in a way because you have to dance with the boss at a certain rhythm. While there is no parry (kinda) you still have your jumps and dashes to guide you across the dance floor.

The music hit all the notes. It was somber, energizing and grand. I sometimes felt like I was walking the pews at a funeral or receiving a medal for being the people's champion. I especially loved the Mantis Lords track. Inject that shit into my veins. It's incredible to me how so many studios can create such distinctive sounds for their games. Video game soundtracks are a genre of art that is probably the most ignored by the public. Anyway, listen to and appreciate more OSTs. If you're reading this on a video game review site, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that.

Overall, I loved Hollow Knight. Like with any title, there are small annoyances, but they pale in comparison to the radiance displayed during the high points of this game. I fully understand why Silksong is longed for. I fully understand why HK holds a special place in the hearts of many, as it now does mine. As always, I'm thankful to exist during a time when I can experience games like this. There's so much beauty in playing a game you always knew about but never gave a chance.

for early access this game is just as fucking good as the first one, i cannot wait until it is complete

the number of times i made it all the way to the end just to die had me contemplating sewerside

there truly is no escape

These post-game platforms have got hands and I love it. Champion’s Road in particular will change you as a person, its one of the most difficult challenges I’ve experienced in a video game so far (Mario with no power ups).

The base game was extremely enjoyable though, most levels didn't pose too much of a challenge besides having to look for each green star or stamp I missed, but they were so short that I could jump right back in and clean up easily. Majority of the levels didn't overstay their welcome.

Level design is top tier.
Sound fx is amazing as always.
Dynamic score is amazing as always.
Looks great for a Wii U port, a result of solid art direction.
Abilities and the inclusion of other characters were cool.
The addition of photo mode was great.

My only problem is the auto scrolling levels that prevented me from going at my own pace, I wanted to go faster but the game doesn't let me and if I miss a star I had to restart. This on top of a fixed (mostly isometric) camera perspective that you can’t even change really hinders the experience and just feels odd. Maybe this is a skill issue on my part, luckily there weren't too many.

Other than that its peak and I love how there's so much Galaxy inclusion.

It's been a month since I beat Rise of the Ronin. I really wanted to like this game more but unfortunately after the first 10 hours of gameplay, it simply fell off. At first I was loving the combat, the open world aspects, Sakamoto Ryoma and the fact that it is set during the Bakumatsu but at some point I found myself running through the main story just to beat it.

I was very excited for the combat since you'd only fight Humanoid enemies, which are typically the best encounters in FromSoftware titles and Soulslikes in my opinion. There's a decent amount of variety with the weapons and each weapon-type has access to 3 slots of "stances" that you can customize, and will act as a rock-paper-scissor system against enemies. Meaning you get different playstyles and they'll either be effective or not effective depending on who you fight. Counterspark/Parrying is an alright mechanic but it isn't as clean as Sekiro, Stellar Blade or even Lies of P, it's kind of weird how it can also serve as an attack except it's just bad when it is used like that.

When you're only fighting Humanoid enemies and bosses, if you're not introducing new and interesting movesets/patterns that are hard to deal with but instead just throw in another enemy, it removes all the fun from actually struggling and learning how to read your opponent. There is maybe one fight that actually skill checks you and it is in early game, after that all the fights that are annoying are the gank fights. I only used the support characters to help me clear the levels but I removed them as soon as I got to the boss encounters. Anyhow this game made me learn to actually appreciate beast/monster-type enemies, you know the big ones that really mess with your camera LOL. The reason why is because when you finally get to those Humanoid bosses, it feels good to fight them since all you've been fighting prior are those big monsters where you have no vision because they take up the whole screen and half of the fight is versus your camera. This is not the case here, like I said earlier you just fight humans who doesn't necessarily get stronger, you just fight an extra person or two and that doesn't make it more fun. I wanted clean one versus one swordfight battles where I have to figure out how to parry their onslaught attacks and have them beat my ass over and over again until I finally pick up on it, and each encounter should've been unique. I don't really have a favorite fight because it all just felt the same.

At this point I don't recall much from the story but the setting is cool and there were a few characters I enjoyed like Sakamoto Ryoma, Kaishu Katsu and Kogoro Katsura. It would've been nice if the MC actually talked more because they do talk BUT most of the time, they're just silent so it makes you feel disconnected.

When I first stepped into Yokohama, I was really excited to explore everything because the map was huge and there was a lot to do. I actually thought that the entire game would take place here but then I learned that there were more maps just as big and that's when I gave up on exploring and only pushed the story. It makes sense that it isn't the only area because of Kyoto and Edo but still, I wasn't willing to go through the Ubisoft loop multiple times.

Rise of the Ronin is a decent experience, however I wouldn't recommend grabbing it for full price. For the most part it has unimpressive graphics especially for a PS5 exclusive title with the frame rate dropping constantly on Performance Mode however I heard there was a patch that helped but I can't confirm because I beat the game before that went live. It does somewhat scratch that Sekiro itch but it is definitely not up there, hell I don't even think this game is that much better than Team Ninja's previous game Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Had a lot of fun with Stellar Blade and I'm currently going through NG+ for the plat. The game has very clear strengths as well as weaknesses. Overall though I'm pretty surprised by how well made it is.

It goes without saying that the most fun part about Stellar Blade is its combat and while it falls short to something like Sekiro, it is still damn good. You get sick ass moves with Combo Attacks, Beta and Burst skills that will not only make you look cool but also do hella damage. Some of these can even cancel out annoying moves or strings, really useful against bosses. The defensive options like Perfect Parrying and Dodging feel very nice too even though I suck at dodging the yellow attacks. You also get access to follow-up attacks when you land these, making it even more satisfying. Also having a dash that basically teleports you to the enemy is convenient if you wanna close the gap and be aggressive.

The Naytiba's have great looking designs and there's a hefty amount of them so you never really get bored fighting these enemies. Boss fights are solid and I'm glad they were because I got hooked on the demo, fighting the Boss Challenge over and over again. Unfortunately didn't get a no damage run but the Stalker fight gave me hope for what's to come and majority of the bosses in the full game actually did deliver.

Paired with an exceptional soundtrack that could very well be the best one this year, it is a fire recipe they have here. Not a single bad track in the entire game and the list has a ton of range too, keeping it refreshing. It also made exploring so much more enjoyable especially since I was doing all the side content.

Oh yeah, the graphics are good.

And I almost forgot to mention but there wasn't enough sword surfing.. sad!

Now this is where it gets bad because while I really liked doing the side stuff, there are so many things that just drag down the experience. First of all, the fast travel and map. Why is it so annoying to get from Point A to Point B? There's just too many steps and when you have to backtrack constantly like it's a metroidvania or something but then you're also met with multiple loading screens, it's just terrible. You can't fast travel to every camp nor can you open the map and look at a different location, not to mention you only have an actual map for only half of the locations. Another thing I noticed when exploring is that there are lots of spots where it looks like you can make a jump or a climb but you literally can not. Is it designed this way to piss off the player? I don't know.

I haven't gotten to the story and characters yet but simply put, it is bland. The main trio of EVE, Adam and Lily have no synergy at all. I simply didn't care for any of them, or the rest of the cast but I guess at least Lily has some personality. EVE just has cool outfits and a ponytail so long it reaches her heel, so swag!

Despite all of that, majority of my time spent with Stellar Blade was fun and that's what matters the most in my humble opinion. Looking forward to the DLC with the Boss Rush mode so I can attempt some no damage runs. Anyways I'm giving it a 7.5/10.

Stellar Blade plays it pretty safe, it has taken inspiration from so many great things that it can be hard to be anything below mediocre (There will be many comparisons). But the things it does do right are amazing, resulting in a really enjoyable experience for me.

Combat is great and basically everything feels fast and satisfying. The parry system could do with a bit more work, but maybe this is just me wanting a clone of Sekiro's posture bar + deathblow system rather than the common mechanic of 'reach parry threshold for a critical blow to the health bar', which was also seen in Lies of P.

Beta skills and the other trees are very fun to use, The animation team at Shift Up cooked extremely hard. The downside is that Eve is so strong with her cool as fuck abilities that you can basically skip some bosses' combos, it can take away from the entire point of parrying in the first place since you can just wail on them instead.

Dodging is also really satisfying, theres such a dynamic feel to every blink you pull off. The game also encourages you to do square and triangle combos to deal extra damage, but this can sometimes lock you into an animation that leaves you vulnerable. Its a nice touch and keeps you thinking about your inputs, rather than spamming the same button like in Sekiro. I do appreciate what its trying to accomplish, if I had to compare the combat its kind of like a mix of the Jedi games (abilities/parries), Lies of P (souls styled encounters/parry criticals), and Nier Automata (combos).

The gun is also a cool aspect of combat, it spices up some of the enemy encounters and levels that remind me of experiences from The Last of Us or Dead Space.

Movement and platforming is similar to how it worked in Jedi Fallen Order, wall running, double jumping and mid air dashing is what you'll be doing for most of the map traversal. I don't mind it at all and it gets the job done, nothing too special here but at least it isnt unbearably slow.

Visuals are great, a bit too many desert areas for my liking but aside from that it was all eye candy. High quality 2D iconography and modelling for individual assets, incredible lighting, colour direction, super dynamic cinematics and QTEs that put you right into the action (insane camera work). Character designs are great, Raven, Tachy, Orcal and ESPECIALLY Eve (I lost) with her many crazy outfits. The Naytiba designs are very interesting too, some pure nightmare fuel in that shit. Loved the inspiration from oceanic animals like octopi, land insects and mecha.

Music is unbelievable and might be the highlight for me, its absolutely my pick for best score of the year so far. Okabe - the Nier series composer, has done it again alongside Monaca sound studio. So many tracks in this game are bangers, with multiple different genres ranging from piano pieces to full EDM dubstep tracks (favourites being: Karakuri's Theme, The Song of the Sirens, Belial's Theme, Hypertube Slide, and Tachy's Theme). The large amount of vocals used in the score push the themes of this game which I think is nice, its something the Nier series also does which makes sense.

Story is where the somewhat small cracks start to show, for the most part its predictable, some small twists I was surprised with but for the most part it was average. In this aspect it will stay in Nier's shadow, Eve could do with more of a personality rather than a sympathetic stoic who just wants to get her mission done, other characters just seem pretty barebones too. The side lore is quite good but nothing that helps the game stand out. Dialogue and writing is pretty basic. Side Missions were average at best, but didn't feel like a chore since some banger music was blasting and I could appreciate Eve's design at the same time. The voice acting (KR) can be pretty good at times within tense moments, especially Eve, Lily, Tachy and Raven, but aside from these few everyone else sounded kind of uninteresting and void of emotion.

Needs more of the Sonic tunnel grinding levels because that shit was sick as fuck!!

Overall I enjoyed my time, don't listen to the braindead controversy and form your own opinions by playing :)

Getting to the true ending left me with such a sour taste, so it's only in retrospect I can remember and understand how this game is widely considered a JRPG gem. A beautiful game with a masterful OST. Combat and job class systems that shine within the genre.

Bravely Default, does however, slowly become a chore as you progress, with difficulty spikes and repetitive gameplay/plotline. If I could completely look past how the latter half of the game made me feel, I know for sure I would have much more appreciation for this game as a whole.