22 reviews liked by dunc
Omori
2020
Steam just added the steam families into their beta and i got added to my friends and then removed within 10 minutes because they saw i owned this game
Chess.com
2007
should be fully free frankly
Porn addict solves murder mystery if anyone hates this they arent real and its a bot review
We Ski
2008
Ah, another game from my childhood that i forgot ive done everything in! My family went on a lot of ski trips, and while I definitely liked the vibes of going down snowy mountain courses, I certainly wasn't a fan of the actual activity of skiing very much (especially when all my brother and dad wanted to do was go on the fucking-kill-you black diamond courses, those are NOT vibes)
Wii WE ski is a game that seeks to provide the vibe of going on a fun ski trip without any of the actual annoyances of actually skiing, and honestly, the vibe works. There's really no overarching objective outside of various little side missions and unlockables and whatnot, just explore the resort and go down the different ski runs. It's a good time for folks that have a lot of free time to just explore the resort freely and just vibe, and that's definitely the kind of game kid me was hella into. There are even fun little secrets, like the ultra-perilous secret course that can only be accessed by going off the beaten path into the unknown mountainy wilderness. (Which is a lot more fun than actual perilous ski runs since who cares it you die in the virtual world!) It's certainly a good time! Though I guess it's absolutely surpassed by its sequels at this point.
Oh and the ski resort plays music from various namco games like katamari and ridge racer diagetically through the resort speakers, real ski resorts take note
Oh and the ski resort plays music from various namco games like katamari and ridge racer diagetically through the resort speakers, real ski resorts take note
Persona 3 Reload
2024
This review contains spoilers
full disclosure: this is the first persona game i have ever beaten. i've tried 4 and 5 but never gotten more than a few dungeons in. i didn’t dislike what i played of them, but they just didn’t feel compelling or… fun.
but because i never learn, i bought persona 3 reload anyway :3
i've had some trouble piecing together my thoughts thus far because i feel that nearly every aspect i loved about this game had some glaring exception to the rule. sort of that, 'when it's good, it's great, when it's bad, it's really bad' feel. those are the games i have difficulty categorising.
one of the most egregious examples of this is the character writing. the main cast is generally very strong, but the social links are extremely hit-or-miss. which is a problem because the ‘daily life’ segments of persona games makes up a significant portion of the gameplay and are extremely important for building better personas for the dungeon-crawling sections.
some of the social links were objectively sweet or touching, like fuuka's or kamiki's, which unfortunately just exacerbated how completely obnoxious other ones were. i would be helping bebe with his sewing, or yuko with coaching kids on the track team, only to then be blindsided by the abrupt return to the long, long fat joke that is suemitsu’s social link. and that’s not even going into tolerating kenji’s attempts to date his teacher, maya gushing about having a creepy crush on one of her students (what is WRONG with the teachers in persona) or tanaka’s sleazy business practices.
this isn’t to say that this is a moral failing on the part of atlus or that games can’t portray bad people. however, for a game with a core message about forging bonds with people, it seems pretty content with forcing you to enable their poor decisions and bad behaviour. i’m not able to tell an NPC that he shouldn't risk permanent injury because it makes him like me less than if i tell him to just man up. i can’t tell maiko to live with her mother and not her father who i know has hit her before, because she likes me less. and i need people to like me so i can fuse stronger personas at a reasonable pace within the game’s rigid day-to-day structure.
and to be honest, that just sucks.
thankfully, i found the writing of the main cast to be much stronger, especially as the plot progressed. the characters themselves are just plain fun too, and this review certainly would not be complete without mentioning aigis in particular, whose design i loved - admittedly, it drew me to the game in the first place - and who immediately became my favourite character. her storyline admittedly isn’t very original, as indeed most of the main characters’ plotlines aren’t, but damn, do i love a good “android learning to feel” trope. other standouts were elizabeth (second only to aigis), junpei and chidori. basically i fell in love with anyone goofy or weird in a fun way, and i believe this is where persona 3 reload truly shines.
while the plot itself doesn’t break much new ground, it’s largely uncompromising in its portrayal of the core themes of existentialism and mortality. suicide-related imagery is prevalent throughout, represented in a kind of microcosm by the protagonists' use of evokers. these small, gun-like devices enable the summoning of a persona in battle by having the users simulate the act of shooting themselves in the head, thus confronting their fear of death.
it’d be a heavy metaphor in any game, but if anything, i wish reload would have committed to it more. makoto is haunted by death throughout the game, in both a figurative and literal sense, and his succumbing to it at the end of the game feels like a fitting end to a story that so starkly lays out its ethos at the opening. which is why it's such a disservice to the story that a certain character can be revived from death if you just... do enough of the hangout events. as much as i adored said character, it feels contrary to the story that's being told.
it’s one of the few holdovers from FES that i wish they had thought to leave out, given that reload is supposedly a remake of the original P3. it’s confusing where atlus have drawn the line on several decisions, not least with regards to selling 'the answer' as part of an expansion pass DLC (which contains nothing else but cosmetic outfits and music), and the complete absence of femc.
i cannot help but feel that remaking a game is the perfect opportunity to create a 'complete' edition with all the previous content included. i would not have been against this game taking longer to come out if they needed more time - but let’s be honest, it’s a corporate decision to force players into paying an extra £30 on top of the baseline £70 that triple-A games cost now. which is stupid.
a few quick-fire points i won't go too into but that i wanted to mention:
+ tartarus feels fun and rewarding; the gameplay loop of advancing through the floors, picking up tarot cards and returning next time with more advanced social links and stronger personas was satisfying
+ the art is stylish and well-realised, though the background NPCs can look a little wonky. (in the scene where fuuka is being bullied, it also kiiind of gave it away that natsuki would become important to the story)
+ the theurgy animations are amazing. i especially love aigis and junpei's second ones
+ elizabeth gets her own bullet point because i love her. fuck you
- no exp sharing in a party-based RPG where characters will sometimes be unavailable as dictated by the plot feels a bit unfair. i used mitsuru, yukari and aigis as my main team, and had mitsuru and aigis disappear one after the other :c i also would have liked to swap people out more often
- locking aigis' best weapon behind finishing ken's hangouts. just why
i’ve criticised a lot about this game, so it might feel weird to now rate it so highly, but there's so much i haven't even mentioned; boss designs, music, the tarot/arcana theming, anything to do with elizabeth and her hangouts. also the much, much needed updates that i haven't talked about and just how funny much of the game's humour is.
but i have probably yapped enough. so, thank you for reading c:
but because i never learn, i bought persona 3 reload anyway :3
i've had some trouble piecing together my thoughts thus far because i feel that nearly every aspect i loved about this game had some glaring exception to the rule. sort of that, 'when it's good, it's great, when it's bad, it's really bad' feel. those are the games i have difficulty categorising.
one of the most egregious examples of this is the character writing. the main cast is generally very strong, but the social links are extremely hit-or-miss. which is a problem because the ‘daily life’ segments of persona games makes up a significant portion of the gameplay and are extremely important for building better personas for the dungeon-crawling sections.
some of the social links were objectively sweet or touching, like fuuka's or kamiki's, which unfortunately just exacerbated how completely obnoxious other ones were. i would be helping bebe with his sewing, or yuko with coaching kids on the track team, only to then be blindsided by the abrupt return to the long, long fat joke that is suemitsu’s social link. and that’s not even going into tolerating kenji’s attempts to date his teacher, maya gushing about having a creepy crush on one of her students (what is WRONG with the teachers in persona) or tanaka’s sleazy business practices.
this isn’t to say that this is a moral failing on the part of atlus or that games can’t portray bad people. however, for a game with a core message about forging bonds with people, it seems pretty content with forcing you to enable their poor decisions and bad behaviour. i’m not able to tell an NPC that he shouldn't risk permanent injury because it makes him like me less than if i tell him to just man up. i can’t tell maiko to live with her mother and not her father who i know has hit her before, because she likes me less. and i need people to like me so i can fuse stronger personas at a reasonable pace within the game’s rigid day-to-day structure.
and to be honest, that just sucks.
thankfully, i found the writing of the main cast to be much stronger, especially as the plot progressed. the characters themselves are just plain fun too, and this review certainly would not be complete without mentioning aigis in particular, whose design i loved - admittedly, it drew me to the game in the first place - and who immediately became my favourite character. her storyline admittedly isn’t very original, as indeed most of the main characters’ plotlines aren’t, but damn, do i love a good “android learning to feel” trope. other standouts were elizabeth (second only to aigis), junpei and chidori. basically i fell in love with anyone goofy or weird in a fun way, and i believe this is where persona 3 reload truly shines.
while the plot itself doesn’t break much new ground, it’s largely uncompromising in its portrayal of the core themes of existentialism and mortality. suicide-related imagery is prevalent throughout, represented in a kind of microcosm by the protagonists' use of evokers. these small, gun-like devices enable the summoning of a persona in battle by having the users simulate the act of shooting themselves in the head, thus confronting their fear of death.
it’d be a heavy metaphor in any game, but if anything, i wish reload would have committed to it more. makoto is haunted by death throughout the game, in both a figurative and literal sense, and his succumbing to it at the end of the game feels like a fitting end to a story that so starkly lays out its ethos at the opening. which is why it's such a disservice to the story that a certain character can be revived from death if you just... do enough of the hangout events. as much as i adored said character, it feels contrary to the story that's being told.
it’s one of the few holdovers from FES that i wish they had thought to leave out, given that reload is supposedly a remake of the original P3. it’s confusing where atlus have drawn the line on several decisions, not least with regards to selling 'the answer' as part of an expansion pass DLC (which contains nothing else but cosmetic outfits and music), and the complete absence of femc.
i cannot help but feel that remaking a game is the perfect opportunity to create a 'complete' edition with all the previous content included. i would not have been against this game taking longer to come out if they needed more time - but let’s be honest, it’s a corporate decision to force players into paying an extra £30 on top of the baseline £70 that triple-A games cost now. which is stupid.
a few quick-fire points i won't go too into but that i wanted to mention:
+ tartarus feels fun and rewarding; the gameplay loop of advancing through the floors, picking up tarot cards and returning next time with more advanced social links and stronger personas was satisfying
+ the art is stylish and well-realised, though the background NPCs can look a little wonky. (in the scene where fuuka is being bullied, it also kiiind of gave it away that natsuki would become important to the story)
+ the theurgy animations are amazing. i especially love aigis and junpei's second ones
+ elizabeth gets her own bullet point because i love her. fuck you
- no exp sharing in a party-based RPG where characters will sometimes be unavailable as dictated by the plot feels a bit unfair. i used mitsuru, yukari and aigis as my main team, and had mitsuru and aigis disappear one after the other :c i also would have liked to swap people out more often
- locking aigis' best weapon behind finishing ken's hangouts. just why
i’ve criticised a lot about this game, so it might feel weird to now rate it so highly, but there's so much i haven't even mentioned; boss designs, music, the tarot/arcana theming, anything to do with elizabeth and her hangouts. also the much, much needed updates that i haven't talked about and just how funny much of the game's humour is.
but i have probably yapped enough. so, thank you for reading c:
Persona 3 Reload
2024
Between 3, 4, and 5, Persona 3 was always my least favourite. Tartarus was a tedious slog, you didn't get to delve very far into your relationships with the people you were closest to, there were bizarrely no option to just be friends with any of the love interests meaning you just didn't get to finish Social Links, and above all there was simply no definitive version of the game with FES and Portable both having features the others lacked. But what Persona 3 did always have was a strong story, a well-defined message, a great main party, and of course, a tremendous soundtrack. While Persona 3 Reload disappointingly lacks a FeMC route, I am happy to say that it features everything else I could want from the game and more, and (unless you want to experience the better main character), the easiest version of the game to point to and say yes, you should play Persona 3.
For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.
The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.
Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.
P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.
And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.
There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.
For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.
The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.
Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.
P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.
And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.
There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.
Persona 3 Reload
2024
This game gave me the best possible first impression into the SMT/Persona universe, and an experience that I will cherish for a long time. I was so addicted to this game from beginning to end, to an extent that only has happened for me for a select few games. As my first Persona game, I was not sure what to expect when it came to the balance of the RPG/combat sections and social sections, particularly considering I'm not a big fan of visual novels, but I found that I loved both parts equally. The gameplay loop is what kept me hooked the entire time, and I really love how in-depth the social side of things is. Some RPGS can feel like there is entirely no gameplay apart from the battles themselves, and this isn't always a bad thing, but I really like how the social part of Persona feels like a whole other game that compliments the battle system, which itself I was a huge fan of.
Persona fusion is such a fun mechanic, especially for someone that hasn't ever done it before, discovering all the personas and skills for the first time. The combat is easily some of my favorite turn-based combat in anything I have played. Each aspect, from downing, to Theurgies, to the variety of elements, buffs and debuffs, and potential customization from the fusion system, all compliments each other excellently. While I did have certain characters I used most frequently, I liked how easy it felt to be able to use all of the party members throughout the game (due in part to the Grand Clocks), with the exception of maybe on. Particularly thanks to the Theurgies, which I’m aware are a new mechanic in Reload, each party member truly feels like they have a particular niche.
Not too many of the social links particularly moved me but I was invested in the vast majority of them regardless, and the payoff for completing as many as I could was absolutely worth it. Themes of life and death are easily some of my favorites in media, as I love existentialism, and this game memorably and successfully implements them in each of the main characters and overarching story as a whole. There's so many great moments and lines of dialogue throughout, particularly near the end of the game, and overall messages that I'm sure will continue to stick with me.
This was such a great experience and I'm excited to play more Persona and SMT games in the future. I'm so glad this game was remade as to give myself motivation to experience it, and it has easily become one of my favorite games of all time. Any minor issues I might have with the game are nearly completely diminished for me by just how much fun I had and how memorable it has already become.
10/10
Persona fusion is such a fun mechanic, especially for someone that hasn't ever done it before, discovering all the personas and skills for the first time. The combat is easily some of my favorite turn-based combat in anything I have played. Each aspect, from downing, to Theurgies, to the variety of elements, buffs and debuffs, and potential customization from the fusion system, all compliments each other excellently. While I did have certain characters I used most frequently, I liked how easy it felt to be able to use all of the party members throughout the game (due in part to the Grand Clocks), with the exception of maybe on. Particularly thanks to the Theurgies, which I’m aware are a new mechanic in Reload, each party member truly feels like they have a particular niche.
Not too many of the social links particularly moved me but I was invested in the vast majority of them regardless, and the payoff for completing as many as I could was absolutely worth it. Themes of life and death are easily some of my favorites in media, as I love existentialism, and this game memorably and successfully implements them in each of the main characters and overarching story as a whole. There's so many great moments and lines of dialogue throughout, particularly near the end of the game, and overall messages that I'm sure will continue to stick with me.
This was such a great experience and I'm excited to play more Persona and SMT games in the future. I'm so glad this game was remade as to give myself motivation to experience it, and it has easily become one of my favorite games of all time. Any minor issues I might have with the game are nearly completely diminished for me by just how much fun I had and how memorable it has already become.
10/10
Yume Nikki
2004
Amazing game! Absolutely worth experiencing!
Everyone from its fandom that I've met has been either a pedophile or a psychopath.
Everyone from its fandom that I've met has been either a pedophile or a psychopath.
Super Mario Sunshine
2002
Lowkey this is giving me mad boss baby vibes
Hollow Knight
2017
Ah, bapa nada.
