The game is filled with fish puns and I enjoyed every one.

I went for sort of a glass cannon build of just dumping all my levels into attack thinking it might make the game a bit harder due to lack of health. The innate health upgrades given by the game are more than enough to sustain you as long as you are able to find them all. My glass cannon build became more of a cannon build. Still very fun, but I did start to 1 phase and 1 shot some bosses. I purposefully limited myself, so I could experience more of the intended fight.

The voice acting is funny.

The game has issues (and plenty of cheesy strats and skips if you look for them), but it was very fun. I really enjoyed learning the different attack patterns and how to deal with each enemy. I had two main issues:
1. Certain parts of your moveset (and many similar Souls game movesets) being locked behind self upgrades. It's not a dealbreaker, but it makes the beginning of the game feel a bit bare for me. I do understand that it may also make the game more beginner friendly for others.
2. Move speed. Travelling great distances was challenging, so I essentially only used the "rollout" spell for at least 90% of the game. I felt it was invaluable to my time. (It also helped with a lot of the exploration of areas I wasn't supposed to be in yet).

Topoda might be my favorite.

I wouldn't wish what the snow crabs did to me on my worst enemy.

Everyone is an expert at Star Fox 64 until Star Wolf gets new ships. That mission is not made for the weak of heart.

A jam packed, incredibly impressive N64 classic with with iconic visuals, a stellar voice cast that's so far ahead of its time in terms of voice work, and such a simple pick up and play arcadey rail shooter. The route system is a bit weird to understand without a guide, but it just leads to more replayability. Hits the sweet spot of capturing the feel of bringing an arcade experience to a home console, while taking advantage of the N64 controller and it's power. Also, the frame drops with each explosion is cool as hell, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

8.5/10 :)

It's a bold move to make a sequel to a game; one that so desperately needed to embrace its video gamey-ness in order to truly shine, and then double down on the cinematic nature instead. I'm still wrapping my head around it, since I don't know how much of a positive this truly is. My main gripes with the first game were the combat and the puzzles, and rather than trying to improve both systems, they simplified it to a point that the game nearly plays itself. On one hand, the annoyances are virtually gone, but on the other hand, the experience is less engaging for me, as the only thing I have to latch onto is the audio-visual journey, and the overall storytelling.

The narrative, however, has also been simplified, or maybe just made to be more direct? The themes are more spelled out, and I think the line between reality and Senua's mind is a bit muddy due to the inclusion of other people on her journey. Redemption, breaking the societal/familial expectations, and recognizing the impact that dehumanizing a person can do is all explored; so much so that you reeeeeeally can't miss it. The game is still fresh in my mind, so maybe the nuances of its storytelling will appear with time, but overall; it doesn't hit for me. It sucks too, since I think the visual upgrades and what they do with the engine is a bit wasted on a story that isn't as intricate as its imagery presents itself as.

I like Hellblade 2. But I wish I loved it. :/ Maybe on a repeat playthrough? Who knows!

6/10

My friend Kate got me this game (Wooooooo! Kate!); and me being the silly friend that I am, I did not play it for a guilt-inducing amount of time. It looks like a really really cool game that I meant to get to; so I picked it up and saw what it was about.

Brief Description

This game is a visual novel dating sim, but heavily uses skill level up mechanics from games like Princess Maker and Long Live the Queen. There are two cycles in the game-- being free periods (where you can choose where to go in the school to level up a skill) and lunch (where you can choose what table to sit at and mingle with certain monsters). There are also items that you can buy to trigger certain events or to boost your stats. I love these types of games, as every dialogue option has a consequence/benefit attached to it, and its usually super fun reading the scenarios. Going through each cycle on a day to day basis, you slowly inch towards prom.

It has two modes. One is a short run which is estimated to be around 30 minutes, the other is a long run which is estimated to be an hour. The difference between them is the amount of cycles till prom and requirements to woo a monster in the game.

Pros
-THIS GAME IS CO-OP??? THAT'S SO COOL!! It even has online capabilities.
-This game has SO much content. It tells you after each run how many events and endings you have completed.
-The writing is super charming and entertaining to read.
-Not too difficult of a game-- super casual playthroughs.
-Everything is super well put together-- extremely optimized and good to look at. Love the character designs, sound effects, ui, etc!


Cons
-I wish that when you get rejected, it still showed you going to prom alone. It was an abrupt ending for me the first time, because it just goes to the stats screen after that happens.
-Maybe this game COULD benefit from voice acting, but only if it is done right I think. However, characters being voiced would probably lengthen the game's time of one playthrough-- which is probably not what they are going for when you take into account a playthrough is usually one sitting (and the fact that this game wants you to do multiple runs)
-I thought prom/endgame would be a bigger part of the whole thing. It surprised me that the characters do not mention prom until late in the run and when it happens its not a big thing-- as indicated in the name.

Loved it. Played it, and put the DLC and all the other games on my wishlist :) Will hopefully come back around to it soon to do more of it. Playthroughs do not take long so I probably will.