After the incredible drop that was this and Wild Arms 2 on Playstation Plus Premium with trophy support it was a tough call which one to go with first, but ultimately I went with The Legend of Dragoon and I was not disappointed. This was my first time playing it and I really enjoyed it.

This had its hooks in me pretty much from the beginning, though I must admit the dialog took a little bit to get used to. The English translation here is not highly regarded and I understand why. Nearly every line ends with two exclamation points (!!) and some of the lines are a bit ridiculous. But part of this game's charm is it is unrelentingly a JRPG. I know that term has been a hot topic as of late, but I mean it in the most endearing way possible. This checks all the boxes of JRPG greats and does it with love.

As far as the narrative goes, for the most part I was into it, but towards the end I did kind of start to trail off. Overall I did still enjoy it though. It was cliche in the right ways. I enjoyed the characters, and the journey they went on. My only knock is that Shana is a pretty terrible character. Her emotional arc is paper thin, and she's hardly a person outside of her connection with Dart. However it's a complaint I can set aside when it comes to my enjoyment of the game.

The combat system is a lot of fun. I will say that I'm glad I had a rewind feature for this because I missed a lot of the button prompts that come with attacking, so it was great to go back and do it until I got it right. I like the dragoon mechanic but I do wish there was a way to switch back and forth from it so long as you had enough SP, because once you turn into a dragoon you're locked into it until you run out of SP, and you can't use items while you're in it. Aside from that frustration I still had a great time with the combat system. I'm glad that in today's day and age, turn based RPGs still do well. I know some people aren't a fan of it but when a game like this does it well, it's just so much fun.

Another frustration of mine was I felt that the amount of items you could carry was too low. Maybe I'm alone in that, but I was constantly having to manage my inventory and sell off or discard items just so I could have a comfortable amount of healing and reviving items. I made it work, though.

Overall if you like JRPGs this one is absolutely worth playing. It has a banging soundtrack, cool and interesting environments, fun characters, a good story and combat system. You can't go wrong!

Platinum Trophy #126
Platinum #2 of 2023

Alright, I downloaded it, played a couple sessions, popped a couple of trophies, and I'm out.

Look, I don't think it's necessarily bad, I just don't think I'm the target audience at all. Certain elements about it seem pretty polished. The gameplay ranges from alright to kinda frustrating depending on which character you play with.

But yeah, not for me. Moving on.

I played most of this last year and got distracted, but today I finally finished it.

Honestly, this game is excellent. Nearly every moment, boss and level is completely fun. Mechanically it's as simple as every other Kirby game is, but it feels the best to play in the entire series. I'd argue that this formula (which I'll call the Mario Odyssey formula) works even better here than it did in Super Mario Odyssey. 3D Mario games are great, don't get my wrong. But I love my 2D Mario. And I love this 3D Kirby.

The length is appropriate for what it is, and there's a good amount of extra content should you want to see it through 100%, gather all the collectibles and blueprints. I personally didn't do everything, rather I just beat the main story path while doing most of the optional side worlds.

Overall I loved this. Such a fun, easygoing time that I can see myself revisiting in the future.

I'm not going to go on and on about why Final Fantasy IV is one of my favorite games of all time (2nd to be exact, see my note on my Top 100 Favorites Games List). This game means so much to me, and pixel remaster is a wonderful way for you to jump in. My recommendations for you, fix the font to classic (this should be done for all the titles) and set the soundtrack to original instead of arrangement (I'd recommend arrangement for 1-3 but please please experience this GOAT soundtrack in its original form). From there, just get lost in the story and the characters and the world and everything that comes with it. This game lived endlessly in my imagination when I was a kid. This showed me what video games can be.

Platinum trophy #132
Platinum #8 of 2023

Played via Game Boy on Nintendo Switch (THANK YOU NINTENDO)

So it's no surprise to me whatsoever that this game is a fun time. It's classic Mario gameplay on the go that I'm sure I would've loved as a kid. What sticks out to me here is the level design and how much fun the developers had with it. There's a space level, a graveyard level with little Jason Voorhees-inspired enemies, and of course it introduces Wario. For that alone, it's an important game.

I think the primary reason why I didn't completely love this is the gameplay isn't as tight as a lot of other Mario games. Mario is floatier with his jumps and slower when he runs and I'm sure that has to do with the hardware limitations of the original GameBoy. As cool as this game is, it definitely is not the best way to experience pure Mario gameplay, in my opinion.

Still, it's totally worth playing and I had a good time with it. (It's also very easy)

I'm not going to review this game because you all should know by now how great it is. It's my third favorite game of all time. That being said, I think that at least some quality of life improvements could have been added to the Master Collection, even little things like skipping the end credits would've been appreciated. Nevertheless, I'm just happy it's playable on modern consoles and with trophy support.

Speaking of trophies, I'm abandoning my platinum journey for the time being. I beat it four times, the last one being my Fox/Big Boss run and I was left utterly confused when it told me that I hit all the qualifications except I killed 37 people, and you need to kill less than 25. This left me a bit baffled, as I feel I only killed who I had to to advance the game. Anyways, I'd rather play other things than play through this a fifth time for an arbitrary platinum trophy. As much as I love them, I'm not the trophy hunter I once was.

"The mitochondria is taking over the nucleus!"

If I had a dime for every time someone in this game said mitochondria.

Parasite Eve is an obviously dated but nevertheless very fun time. I can see why fans have clamored for this series to return in some form. There's a lot of great things about it. I think the story is fun, the characters are a bit over the top but also fun, the RPG mechanics are interesting, the soundtrack is great. The cutscenes are pretty top notch as far as PS1 games go. I found the focus on inventory management interesting and how it levels up as you do.

However, a few things hold this back from a higher rating. Movement speed is a little too slow for my taste, especially when the camera angle far away and you're crossing a room. It's not tank controls like Resident Evil, but even those games had sprint buttons so that would've been appreciated here. Some of the systems in the game I felt weren't really explained very well. I thought the trading cards were all but useless until they weren't. The menus are a little clunky but work fine enough. I couldn't have imagined playing this without a guide, but that goes for a lot of games from this time. Also, there were times were this was pretty challenging for me, but that's more of a me problem.

This definitely deserves a remake or follow-up of some sort. Imagining this with more modern game design sounds like a real treat.

I'm not going to rate this simply because I did not put enough time into it to give it an honest rating. But I can say that unfortunately the Overdrive combat system is not clicking with me. I know it's an added strategic mechanic to the combat but I feel it's limiting how I want to play the game, and I'm just not feeling it.

I'm reminded of CrossCode, a game with high praise from players and critics. On paper, it should have been right up my alley. Beautiful pixel art, inspired by the JRPG classics I grew up with it. But I did not like the puzzles in it, at all, to the point where it dragged down my inspiration to see it through.

I like the art and environments of Chained Echoes. Story and characters seem okay so far, but I wouldn't say I'm attached to any of it. Time is precious and I'm going to move on to something else that I'd like to play (maybe I'll finish one of the 8 other games I'm currently playing).

I'm gonna shelve this indefinitely and maybe I'll revisit it someday...but it's unlikely.

This is easily one of the best games of 2023, one of the best superhero games ever made and probably the best game Insomniac has made thus far. Each Spider-Man title from them I've found to be better than the last, as they continue to iron out their formula and improve on any problems I've had with previous installments. That's not to say that the game isn't without its flaws. I think the story doesn't really pick up for a little while. I think the game starts out incredibly strong, dips a bit and then really ramps up in the second half. I'm glad that all the science puzzles are skippable again because they're still not interesting. Playing as Peter or as Miles, walking around or riding a bike is not fun. I get needing to spend time with these characters outside of their costumes is necessary for the story, but I'm not convinced all that just couldn't have been cutscenes.

All that being said, web swinging has never felt better. It's so good that I didn't even use the amazing fast-travel until late in the game. Combat is tons of fun. The boss fights are better. I found the second half of the narrative incredibly strong and I love what Insomniac did with some of these characters. Shoutout to Yuri Lowenthal for an amazing performance.

Platinum Trophy #137
Platinum #13 of 2023

I have a strange relationship with Dead Space. I missed the original when it came out, because at the time I was in high school, I had no money, and my parents had no money. When I finally managed to get an Xbox 360, it red-ringed on me too many times and as a result, I came to this generation late, only really starting in 2012 when I got my PS3. I went back to the original Dead Space originally in 2015, played a little and stopped. I went back in 2016, played a little and stopped. I went back one more time in 2017, played a little more and ultimately stopped.

Why? I'm not exactly sure. I can tell you then and I can tell you especially now, having beaten this remake from start to finish that for reasons I may need a therapist to truly understand, I don't love this game.

I like the atmosphere. I like the limb mechanic. I like stasis. I love survival horror. What's missing? I guess for me, it's hard not to look at the Resident Evil franchise, specifically Capcom's modern output, but really Resident Evil 4 (2005) and on. They play similarly, third-person, over the shoulder, action emphasis with horror, slow-ish movement, creature enemies. Yet I find Resident Evil way more compelling. I'm not comparing the two and definitely stating that one is better than the other; it's all subjective, anyway. But I think analyzing what I like more about Resident Evil educates myself on what I don't like as much about Dead Space.

For starters, I've heard that the Ishimura is this great setting and a character unto itself, and I....disagree? What I did like was some of the environmental storytelling, specifically with the in-game cult (that's also really the only part of the story I found interesting). There was also additional story littered throughout the game but delivered in different ways, like text or audio or video logs, but I couldn't be bothered to care about any of it. And I tried. I even did some side mission content but didn't care about any of that either. With Resident Evil, the characters feel a bit more established, especially the protagonists. I don't feel attached to Isaac at all in this. Resident Evil has diary pages and the like that help flesh out some story, but a lot of it is presented to you in more straight forward fashion. Here, this game felt like its story was throwing as many setbacks as humanly possible (to a nearly laughable degree) to your character and flooding you with enemies to elongate your time with the game. And that's not a completely bad thing because a lot of the gameplay is fun. But it gets tiring.

My criticisms aside, I don't want to give the game lower than a 3.5 because I did have fun with it, and I recognize that it's a good game, but I also recognize that it's just not one that I really connect with. And that's probably just a me thing.

Other reviewers have said this but I'll reiterate: Alan Wake II feels like the culmination of everything Remedy has made thus far and the true realization of their skill and potential.

I've always found them to be a really interesting developer, but Alan Wake II proves that they're a high-caliber player worth paying close attention to. Reviews are also quick to point out that this is very Twin Peaks inspired and as a massive Twin Peaks fan, the inspiration has been understated. The amount of parallels I was able to draw between the two is pretty staggering; but I don't find this a fault. Twin Peaks: The Return is the most ambitious, artistic, surreal piece of television ever made. Alan Wake II borrows from it in a lot of the right ways, but it doesn't feel like a Lynchian rip-off. There's also some sprinkles of Kojima in here, too. But ultimately, I must put some respect on Sam Lake's name. He's carrying the torch here tremendously.

It's not the story beats in the narrative, its the way its told. I won't go into details, but this game has a wonderful flourish about it. I've always admired Remedy's admiration for mixing live-action footage in with in-game cinematics and gameplay and since Quantum Break especially, they've doubled down on that and they're better for it. This game has great atmosphere, and several jump-scare moments that are more fun than pretty much any other ones I can think of.

The only reason this doesn't get 5 stars from me is the puzzle solving in the gameplay. I'm not saying it's bad or terribly complicated, only that it slowed me down a bit and got just a little monotonous after a little while. I mostly felt it during the sections where I played as Alan Wake. The light mechanic is really cool but made me feel really dumb sometimes. I'll spend ten minutes going where the fuck do I go??? only to feel stupid once I figure it out. Probably more of a me thing than anything. I've heard lots of complaints about movement speed, and it seems pretty on-par with modern Resident Evil to me. I suppose there was a little more time devoted to walking around maps than there could've been. There is a fast travel method via your car but sometimes being across the entire map from it and having to trek your way back to it wasn't fun.

All that being said, Alan Wake II is must play if you like survival horror.

Platinum Trophy #136
Platinum #12 of 2023

I was so excited to hear that this was going to be day one on Game Pass AND Playstation Plus. I appreciate the choice, but I'm gonna go where I can pop trophies.

I had a great time playing Sea of Stars, but I do think elements of it hold it back from true greatness. I think the writing is hit or miss, where times it has me laughing and other times it has me wanting to skip to just get it over with. Story isn't everything in a JRPG, but it usually becomes the main hook for me. This story is one that kind of goes back and forth for me. There are moments of intrigue in the overall plot but times where I wasn't fully invested. In 2023, I also expected a better travel system than the one we got here. It provided some cool animations, but reminded me a bit of God of War (2018) in that they relied too heavily on the reality of the game and not enough on the player. However, phenomenal fast travel is unlocked after beating the main story.

There's plenty to like here. I think the combat is genuinely fun, probably the best part of the game and it didn't get old for the 30 or so hours I put into it. It really has creative touches on turn-based combat. Garl is a great character. Some of the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Oh and shoutout to my boy, Keenathan.

But towards the end of my playthrough, the game started losing me a bit for some reason. I think its an appropriate length, but the story felt a little more dragged out than it needed to be. And while Sabotage has made two great games now, I prefer The Messenger.

Wow this was hard. Full disclosure, I completed this on SNES via Nintendo Switch and I’m not sure how I would’ve done it without the rewind feature!

Overall I’m glad I saw this through because the platforming is fun. I remember watching gameplay of Donkey Kong Country 2 at a neighbor kid’s house a long, long time ago and remember thinking it looked so cool. I’m looking forward to getting to that one.

Overall I enjoyed my time with this one and there’s not too much to be said other than I didn’t quite love it though I appreciate it for what it is.

Completed via Mega Man Legacy Collection on PS4.

I was born in thew early 90s, and exposed to video games since before I could talk, thanks to having an older brother. We had an NES in the house, which I would play Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on, but that was really the extent of it. The reason for that is we also had a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis, and to me those were much prettier, shinier toys.

I know how widely acclaimed the Mega Man NES titles are, but my first exposure to the franchise was Mega Man X on SNES, and that ends up being the measuring stick that I compare any and all Mega Man titles to. The graphics, gameplay, enemy and level design in that game are all top notch, if you ask me. Starting off with Mega Man X was a blessing and a curse, because going back to these older titles is a bit more difficult for me.

That's not to say I can't get into them. I think the ones I've played are fun! This one included. It's unfair to compare graphics to Mega Man X, but I think in just about every way Mega Man 2's mechanics and level design are improved in X. It means that I can play these and enjoy them but not as much. That's probably just a me problem. If I played these games before moving onto the SNES then perhaps I'd think differently.

Overall it's a good game. Very good, in fact, and at times ver challenging. Out of all the bosses I probably liked Quick Man the most. For no other reason than I think he's cool.

Final Fantasy XVI recognizes Final Fantasy IV as the GOAT, as everyone should.

Alright, it took me a while to get through this game, and throughout it I had so many thoughts, impressions and the like that changed a bit over time. At the end of the day, I don't believe this is top-tier Final Fantasy, though it is filled with some top-tier moments. The game unfortunately does not balance the high highs of this game very well and the result is a game I really enjoyed, but do not completely love.

First and foremost, I'm of two minds with the combat. I believe there are moments where it's really fun to play and moments where it's a bit of a slog. I actually credit the trophy list with really getting me to explore many variations of the combat, thus opening it up to me an interesting way. But I can't pretend that I don't feel like I permanently damaged some controllers with how often I mashed the square button throughout this game (I'm exaggerating, but it was a lot). In particular, this game largely has wonderful boss fights, but some annoying in-betweens. Fighting a badass boss with a huge health gauge? Alright, sure. Fighting big dudes with stagger gauges amongst random hordes of enemies for the sake of prolonging the gameplay? Not so much.

As far as the narrative goes...unfortunately, I just wasn't that invested. I think the voice acting is really well done, I think the active time lore and ways to dig into the story are really cool features, but I got kind of bored with it. I think conversations with NPCs are largely too long, and that goes for main quest, side quests, and pretty much everything else. I think a lot of the side quests are very basic in their design, and frustrating in other ways. How many times was an objective 'go talk to this person' then 'go talk to that person' then 'go back and talk to that person'. It was a little too much.

That being said, the pure spectacle of the big moments in this game are admirable and take the game up a notch, along with the boss fights. I just wish the rest of the game held up as well for me. I debated giving this 3.5 stars or 4, and ultimately I went with 4 because I did enjoy a lot of my time with it, but I'm happy to be done with the main game. I'll play the DLC next but I won't go for the platinum, at least not right now. Playing through the game a second time and reaching an additional 30-40 levels sounds like a slog.