Quite possibly the most content rich video game I have ever played, the amount of quality put into almost every aspect of FF7 Rebirth is pretty insane especially considering that most of this game is just fluff. I genuinely enjoyed almost all of it, the minigames, queens blood, gold saucer, these goofy ass sidequests and a very considered open world, this game kind of has it all and it sacrifices very little quality for it. That's not to say that I don't have problems with the game, but it feels negligible in face of it all. Cant believe I'm saying this already but I cant wait for Part 3, Good game.

This is just so slickly presented, so focused and perfectly lean. The handling is like coasting through a dream, every drift and turn feeling like you're entering a zen state when you perfect a track and hit those perfect slides. The music, the endless summertime vibes this hits on oh so wonderfully. That opening FMV that had me spellbound within its vibes.

Each track with the perfect kind of coastal dreamlike hypnotic sense of wonder, each car feeling distinct to drive and fun to master. The type of game that you throw on when all you wanna do is fuckin vibe and lose yourself in pure 1999 circuit racing bliss.

The stories while light keep your attention through each GP and provide a nice bit of sentimentality between each race. Everything about this game appeals to me in such a hyper specific way. None of the other Ridge Racer games that I've tried or played have hit for me quite like this game does. It hits everything it does in a way that no other arcade racer ever has. I realize now that I've been looking for this game my entire life and I'm so happy that I've finally played it. Namco really couldn't lose in the 90's. Making 2 of my favorite games ever (Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere my beloved....) absolute fuckin peak.

This game kinda means the world to me.

3 by extension does too but there's something in that cold mysterious almost endless seeming hell walk that Aqua is on that really sits in my spirit, especially more around the holidays where I feel like my depression and anxiety can end up spiking quite a bit.

Cause I would frankly say that this whole short journey is about depression. This is a story about feeling like a complete and total failure. It's about feeling like you have no one, constantly grasping for some kind of grand connection but not being able to tangibly hold onto anything really around you, constantly doubting the reality you once could trust. Your foundation is shaky, you're rocky, you're falling apart at the seams but you still keep walking because what else are you supposed to do?

Your world has been stripped from you, everyone you once knew is gone or lost, all you can do is keep moving and keep pushing on, hoping to find some way out of the hole in your soul.

Creeping doubt, self destruction, pain, it's all constantly there. The way Aqua's self doubt and own self destruction is physically manifested especially clicks with me. Constant situation after situation, exhausted but unable to truly rest, looking for any rescue, any break.

It's rough out there.

huge bmx xxx fan excited to play it for the first time. no but fr this game has lived inside my brain since i was like 13 bc some youtubers i was into at the time played it. that video introduced me to taking back sunday bc cute without the e is in this games soundtrack and i think that's ruined my brain permanently bc 70 percent of everything i listen to is some flavor of shitty emo music.

anyhow this is like rlly good and rlly fun but also so incredibly cruel and nasty in a way that i understand anyone turned off by this. but idk i grew up on like jackass and stuff like that and i think what captured my eye even as a child watching shows like that is seeing smth similar to the town i grew up in on the television screen in a pre youtube getting rlly big type of world. and bc i grew up on stuff like that i'm naturally very into the aesthetics and vibe this game is going for. but it's like genuinely such a mean fucking game, like the soundtrack is rlly rlly good and i'm big into most of the songs on it but they're such small minded and petty AND misogynistic ass songs. even the stuff that's a little bit more fun and not emo/alt metal are like rude songs, that sublime song is actually so gross. there's a weird system at play here that i haven't seen in similar games, this completely ditches the time limit type restrictions in favor of a real health system, when ur health goes all the way down by failing a trick u get kicked out of the level. reminds me of like the fascination america had on young people getting hurt, this was present in news at the time of course but it's also how mtv and similar channels managed to stay afloat for the better part of a decade.

this rlly wants to be a satire of corporate greed in a post 9/11 world and tbh often i was charmed by how heightened everything felt, like a less biting gta but still way more than like the underground tony hawk games. occasionally there's rlly smart stuff here, the ramps made out of rockets w american flags painted on them is a nice little touch. the world the game inhabits is very often cold and hostile and i think that makes a lot of sense for where the culture was at the moment and where it would end up going. npcs are like fucking mean in this, everyone hates u and maybe they should lol. often though the game is kind of just racist and sexist and filled w gross out humor which yeah it is a shame.

levels feel rlly wide and expansive and every ramp and rail connects in a way that's kind of rhythmic? but mostly i'm just rlly impressed by the locales they picked. usually in stuff like this you get major metropolitan cities or fake ones loosely based on one that don't rlly have any thematic tissue, but this goes for either smaller cities like syracuse or tourist trap cities like vegas. and they all have their own visual identity even the skate parks or vague ideas of places like a dam. when i was a teenager and i watched the video of this game i always thought the layout of the bronx level looked similar to my hometown, i didn't live anywhere close to ny but the feeling of it rang true. it looked like my city and that resonated w me and i do think stuff like that is rlly important.

this review is free of major spoilers or triggering content! it was actually written with the express intent of being read by people who are curious about the game.

ya know, when subahibi was first recommended to me by n0thanky0u (stream n0thanky0u), it didn't strike me as something i would ever touch. i had a strong aversion to ANY kind of h-scene at the time, much less extreme ones, and the 50 hour runtime would be longer than any video game i'd ever played. however, i'm a person who will definitely play something if it has a good soundtrack, and the osts that i heard were 10,000% up my alley. bittersweet piano pieces inspired by composers like erik satie and a RIPPING op. i cannot overstate the extraordinary talent of composer fuminori matsumoto. so i downloaded the game from nyaa torrents and it sat on my ssd, waiting, its eyes glaring from my desktop, my nerves keeping my mouse pointer from anything more than hovering over the game's shortcut.

for reasons i can't recall, i finally got the guts to start subahibi one night. the main menu faded in, and the art and music instantly evoked a visceral sadness in me. i let the song loop a few times before i pressed start, leading into an opening scene that hit just as hard. it's a frame now engraved into my brain: a pan outwards into a gorgeous drawing of our first protagonist, minikami yuki, on a rooftop with a dreamy blue sky behind her. if this game gets one thing right, it's art direction. the song that plays, "yoru no himawari", is also unforgettable. and from the get-go, yuki's voice acting and writing is infectiously charming. she will not stop being charming for the rest of the game. she's the best character- a girl who's even lovable in her flaws, but doesn't fall victim to the "mary sue" syndrome. her character writing is a consistent testament to sca-ji's talents. just look at how many people on this page have yuki pfps! she was my motivation to finish the game and absolutely joins the hallmarks of my most beloved characters. who all happen to be women. damn.

the following eight hour opening chapter of subahibi is a very slow slice-of-life tone setter. personally, i love those eight hours. they allowed me to develop a relationship to yuki and her "gaggle of lesbians" (zakuro, tsukasa, and kagami) free of any melodrama. but all good things must end, and shit hits the fan quickly.

down the rabbit hole ii, the second chapter, is undoubtedly my favorite. it's one of the snappiest chapters in the game, wasting NONE of your time on h-scenes. the illusion of peace from the first chapter is shattered so quickly and effectively, and you're fired on a rocket into the mystery of the game's central suicide. you play once again as yuki, and its here that her character really begins to shine. she plays a similar role as special agent dale cooper in the first season of twin peaks: an outsider to a tragic situation who brings not only levity, but a passion for the investigation that both shows how deeply she cares for others' well-beings and rubs off on the player. this is also the chapter where the game begins to incorporate one of its strongest elements: abstract horror. wow, another twin peaks comparison! seriously, if you were craving more after the unique highs of this chapter, i cannot recommend twin peaks enough. it scratched the itch for me. special agent dale cooper is as bold and vivacious of a spirit as minikami yuki. i've talked about yuki enough, however, and i'd like to touch on the wakatsuki twins, tsukasa and kagami. they might be the game's most devious emotional trick. they are an excellent use of the oft-squandered tsundere and shy girl tropes, managing not to feel annoying or forgettable even after you realize that they are clearly tsukasa and kagami from lucky star. sca-ji exploits these characters with a series of twists that i won't spoil.

consider playing down the rabbit hole i and ii and leaving the game there if you're wary about its disgusting content, because they are a joy by themselves and only contain one mandatory h-scene, which is vanilla softcore. there is also little to no gore in these chapters, and a skip button if you need it. there's not much else i want to cover from down the rabbit hole ii, though i will add one thing: the harrowing ending of this chapter grabbed me by my collar and shook me. no matter what the game threw at me after, i was going to keep playing. i wanted to know what happened to yuki. i NEEDED to know what happened to yuki.

so the next chapter opens with a character who is not yuki, weeks before she enters the story.

it's my own invention is undeniably the most infamous chapter of subahibi. it eats up the majority of the game's runtime, yet it leaves you with more questions than answers about the catalyst suicide. by this point, the catalyst suicide has opened up into a conspiracy riddled with cult antics. i love a good cult story. that being said, i was thrown for a loop when i realized that this chapter plants you in the shoes of the cult's leader. i have never been as livid as when i discovered that. he is established as a deranged and stomach-churning villain in dtrh ii; he's no caricature, and he's no dunce. he is as mysterious as he is cunning. in a way, this makes for compelling storytelling. in another way, this makes for a revolting 20-hour nightmare fest, lived through the eyes of the man i hate most. sca-ji's character writing is top-notch (AS FAR AS THE MAIN CAST) and it's my own invention sees him using his talents for evil. in spite of that... this chapter is one of my favorites. yes, i had to skip multiple hours of it because it's riddled with h-scenes. most of those h-scenes are intended to build on the horror, though the weirdo fetish bait trivializes the serious moments. it lacks focus. what surrounds these h-scenes, however, is some of the finest psychological warfare in any video game. the cult leader has all the mental stability of a coked-up rat, so seeing the world from his unstable perspective isn't nerve-wracking, its nerve-annihilating. it almost manages to make me feel bad for the evil bastard. a good comparison would be the "bag of milk" games from nikita kryukov. though those games might handle mental illness with more care than subahibi (emphasis on might, the bag of milk games are weird), subahibi did a much better job of scaring me. i was constantly paranoid and questioning what was real. this is also the chapter where the world begins to feel more fleshed out. suginomiya cements itself as a tangible place, defined equally by its bright city streets and the shapeless dark mystery pouring between your fingers...

from here on out, a play-by-play breakdown won't be effective. subarashiki hibi blooms into a penrose sunflower whose chronology becomes less and less important the harder i look at it. besides, the core plot starts to lose steam right around this point. looking-glass insects, the fourth chapter, is captivating, tense, and shockingly mature, but it's the shortest chapter in the game. it's like a detour after the massive whopper double combo of it's my own invention. the final chapters (5, 6, and 7) are my least favorite. so, if the entire back half of the game is weak, and the whole experience is plagued by vile h-scenes, what makes subahibi worth it? why even bother writing this review?

a lot.

while the most praised aspects of subarashiki hibi are its plot and philosophy, i can't say either of those aspects touched me as much as suginomiya did (suginomiya being the fictional district where these characters live). the incredibly talented aka akasaka worked on the background art, and by jove it shows. whether it be the alleyway the gals and i ran down time and time again to get to and from school, with the little open air shop on the right- a cafe of some kind?- or the plaza, always bustling with people at mid-day, or the rooftop of school building c where yuki could be caught skipping class to read some old book or smoke, the atmosphere is simply unmatched. not to mention the tangible duality in sca-ji's writing, which makes a place so visibly cozy become a hellscape when the tone shifts. take the alleyway as an example. in chapter 4, the actual background art for the alleyway doesn't change. yet it feels more claustrophobic simply from knowing what is happening and will happen there and that those walls are too close together to escape if you're cornered. i've heard someone use the term "mundane horror" once before (i've also called it "daylight horror"), and i think this game embodies that perfectly. though suginomiya may be home, and people's day-to-days are still day-to-daying, our characters are facing terrors of the macro (existential) and micro (physical) in these places. it's that feeling when you're paranoid in public, surrounded by people who don't know anything is wrong while you know that something very much is. i'd kill for more games that capture that vibe. it's a difficult thing to pull off. hence why subahibi's approach to horror is so unique!

the daylight horrors are one example of such tone dichotomies in this game, and the more i think about it, the more i'm certain that sca-ji's central purpose was to explain his interpretation of the tractatus logico-philosophicus. the last chapter bluntly beats you over the head with heavy-handed wittgensteinian monologues, though, as i said in my other review, it's the leaner passages that were more effective. whether it be the proto-ddlc fake out (sorry not sorry) that is the first chapter, the jarring and disgusting h-scenes, or drugged-up takuji and kimika stepping out onto the roof to have a heartfelt moment after witnessing brutal depravity, sca-ji screams that in the face of the finite limits of the world and the dire state of all things, "we must live happily". the bits about abstract fears vs concrete realities played off of the abstract horror scenes nicely. i can't say that it resonated with me on a deep level, but his viewpoints on complex topics were communicated in mostly simple and effective ways.

there's a secondary purpose to this story too, one i'd argue is a bit more interesting (if by virtue of being less discussed). it was brought to my attention by otonashi ayana, the elusive girl whose presence is never quite explained by the game. on a meta level, i think she might be a stand-in for sca-ji himself. in fact, i think the whole game might be about sca-ji. i won't argue that this is "his intent" or anything, but this game is raw, unedited, and just full of inexplicable shit. it is a sprawling 50 hour epic with a somewhat non-linear plot where things HAPPEN for the sake of it happening. and it slowly starts to peel back and reveal a picture of the man at the center of at all. i'm not about to go all beginner's guide and start psycho-analyzing him. i will, however, say that if any part of this game was removed- as badly as i want them to be removed- it would be a detriment to sca-ji's writing. suginomiya is the world inside of his head, with everything twisted, stupid, beautiful, and nonsensical that comes with that. how often do you see an artist with the budget and the team to make a high-quality game where they have their hand in every aspect, and are the sole writer and director? i don't know. it left me with a lot of thoughts in my brain and an unusual sense of intimacy. there's always some part of yourself you have to hold back to make yourself and your vision stomachable. subahibi is what happens when you don't. subahibi is what house of leaves is to mark danielewski, or the unedited version of dorian gray to oscar wilde. it's the full realization of the intensely overambitious dream project that drives the fire in the belly of the young artist.

so as far as like, the actual script and story and all that, that's what makes subahibi "worth it". but you may have noticed, there's one aspect i've mentioned but not discussed, and it's probably my favorite thing about the game.
that.
damn.
soundtrack.
this is my recommendation for anyone who reads this review. i can't in good faith recommend playing subahibi past down the rabbit hole ii considering the hours of triggering content. i CAN in good faith force you to listen to the bgm and the opening and ending tracks. fuminori matsumoto and pixelbee's compositions bleed earnest teenage melodrama to the point where i don't need to understand the lyrics to know what these songs are about. before i had read a single line from this game's text, the music made me wistful. it's blue skies and freeway drives. it's wind blowing through your hair as you look down at the city below. it's nights where you lie alone in your bed, remembering the sounds and sights of summers past and dying to relive everything one more time, the good and the bad. truly the perfect music for a game about learning to live through trauma. whether or not subahibi handles its subject matter well, whether its poorly paced, and whether it was a good idea to expose my brain to this pandora's box of fetish filth ceases to matter when the chords of the title theme begin to play and i get a little misty-eyed and think, damn, what a world, what a piece of art.

the closest thing subahibi has to a true ending (ignoring its dubiously canon epilogue) isn't an ending at all. instead, after one last conversation with ayana, you are sent back to the beginning of down the rabbit hole i. the only concrete answers are contained within the two straightforward and honestly terrible side endings. and excuse me if this is too charitable a read, but... i feel like that might be on purpose. why are you searching for endings and answers? what would a storybook closer change about what happened to them? nothing, bitch. and so it begins again.



(old review): WHY DID [spoiler character] BANG HIS SISTER? WHY DID SCA-JI MAKE THE BEST CHARACTER LITERALLY SAY THE "SIBLINGS BY CHANCE LOVERS BY CHOICE" BULLSHIT AND BANG HIS SISTER I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE I AM A BROKEN SHELL OF A HUMAN
AND THEN THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE A JOKE ABOUT IT LATER IN THE GAME???! KILL ME

Such an amazing survival horror game... i just can't process how impressive it is for it's year of release.
Haunting Ground was one of the most panicking, nerve-wracking, pleasing and beautiful experience i've had i awhile while playing a game.
There's so much into it, so let me actually get into why i enjoyed this game-
The soundtrack- every character has such a unique theme song. It makes you feel a certain way about a character and your reaction when you encounter them, for an example- Daniella. Her theme song totally depicts her ill personality and struggles, as she has a strong grudge against the main character, which is why her whole theme song hit every right place in my head, which made me just want to listen to the song over and over again because of how weird and yet unique it is.
Or Ricardio's - even if he wasn't MUCH of a strong threat, his theme song was literally screaming PANIC. It was how i felt when he was literally chasing us with a gun in his hands, just running at us at a high speed...
The lore- it made me want to look into it more. It's so disgusting and terrifying yet brave for the directors and writes to do something like this. I won't get into much details, but for me it was intriguing enough to make me want to play the game more even if I was struggling at times.
The setting- The Italian castle was really well furnitured. Nice atmosphere, beautiful design, yet some kind of claustrophobic feeling hinting at us that we are being watched or that there is a big threat coming for us.
The angles- i loved them. Everytime we move the angles were changing, which is a pretty common thing for games like these, but with this one is like the Silent Hill 1 type of camera movement that i noticed and was left pretty pleased by it. (By the way, let me tell you again, that i streamed this game on my twitch channel : MaryyHill, and right now i am currently streaming Silent Hill 1 also! Both are my first playthroughs, so it is quite exciting.)
The characters- good designs, amazing job at the voice acting (especially Daniella, LIKEE...), and they are quite memorable. You can feel a lot of things while getting into their stories and situation- like disgust, even empathy.
Hewie- i loved the whole mechanic with Hewie, even though sometimes it was really pissing me off at how disobedient he is even though i was always praising/petting him and giving him treats and food to regain stamina.
There was even a bug for me in the game where Hewie didn't let me progress into the game because he didn't want to open one particular door that he had to open, but, I got through this, so....
I like Hewie's character. He is not just some side kick, he is a big part of this game and out character is sometimes depending on Hewie A LOT, like on boss fights, and i enjoyed it. Watching Hewie biting someone's ass was the most satisfying things ever!
Plus let me just tell you how sweet his design is, him and Fiona are literally like angels, which was kind of hinted a lot of times in the game just by the vulnerability and innocence of Fiona's look, while Hewie was her ''guardian'' of some sort.

What i didn't exactly like is the sexualization in this game, also the fact that there were bugs that i had to get pissed at for hours, plus the whole Hewie thing, but overall the problems are not so big that i wouldn't rate it 5 stars. In fact, i think this may be a favourite game material. It totally is.

haven’t seen skinamarink but I assume it’s just like this tbh.
rlly uncomfortable and disconcerning.. the fact this runs so badly and barely functions as designed makes it more disturbing. very fascinated by its usage of overlaying different animations and scenes over one other, reminds me a lot of various experimental video work and short films I’ve seen and it’s not smth usually present in games. the scenes where ur navigating the house are so like disorienting and nauseating. def unique and probably very novel in 09 but now seems quaint and well intentioned but still problematic. like idk I think gameifying assault and abuse is incredibly fucking iffy, I don’t mean like making a game out of these concept but including more arcade-y elements of game design like collectibles and ranks I find a bit gross. of course drakengard 3 and rule of rose are very game-like games w big boss fights and similar themes and both were trying to be marketable but also both are so dense in terms of both written text and implied text. and this simply isn’t, it’s incredibly visual which I do like but sometimes the shocking image is just that, it’s just shocking and a little toothless, they can be powerful images but still seemingly only there to push boundaries of accepted good taste.

also pls listen to the ost it’s seriously so beautiful
will prob draw some fanart of the girls bc in love w their designs

A modern survival horror made by people who not only know what survival horror is but understand it as well.

If you have played survival horror before than you’ll have a good idea of what’s in store with Tormented Souls. The gameplay is a mix of exploration, puzzles and combat with tank like controls, fixed camera angles, back tracking and limited resources. It does a pretty good job with movement and exploration. You’ll find yourself steadily unlocking your way further into the atmospheric mansion/hospital and learning the layout. But there are a couple of drawbacks. I didn’t like the map at all and did not find it good to use. There are also times when there is too much to keep track of, especially if you take breaks during your playthrough. Puzzles are mostly very good but at times they can be too obtuse and there is probably a few too many of them. Combat is solid and I liked the weapons but there is room for improvement here. There is just the right amount of resources to keep you playing carefully and considering your saves but inventory management wasn’t really here. Darkness is used very well as you need your lighter equipped to see in some places but then can’t have a weapon out. It’s a cool, well executed idea that is right at home in survival horror. The gameplay experience is absolutely more positive than negative and survival horror fans are in for a good time.

Visually this game is outstanding for a lower budget title. The environments and lighting is fantastic and the fixed but often tracking camera frames it all beautifully. The objects and menus are well done too, excluding the map. Sadly the characters and enemies are not on the same level. There is something off about them both technically and in style. It’s almost like they are from a slightly different game. They lack expression and personality too. It’s not really that much of an issue though and Tormented Souls still superbly delivers unsettling atmosphere, gore and body horror. The music and sound design is really damn good too. The only issue there is they didn’t know when to use restraint and have silence.

The story, lore and characters are not that great. It’s fine but forgettable and predictable. There wasn’t any hook or interesting background that pulled me in. It’s like a bunch of different horror ideas somewhat poorly put together. The dialogue isn’t written well and is poorly voice acted. And it’s not in that cheesy, camp and/or charming way you might expect from an older horror game. It is just subpar. It is certainly no disaster or deal breaker though and I still found some enjoyment in it.

The biggest issue I had with Tormented Souls was that I only did one play through. I planned on doing more and there are trophies that encourage you to. However once I finished it I wasn’t in the mood to do it again. I know this might sound vague or bit unhelpful but something put me off playing again. Maybe it’s the flow or pacing. Maybe it is a bit too long with a few too many puzzles. Maybe it was just my backlog staring at me. I don’t know exactly but I will try to revisit it again for sure.

Overall none of the flaws detracted too much from my experience and it was one of my favourite games to come out in 2021. Of course I am willing to be forgiving to as it is lower budget and one of my favourite genres. Tormented Souls is a fantastic survival horror by a clearly passionate team. It’s a must play for any survival horror fan and I would give it a good recommendation even if you’re not.

8.0/10