Finished 100% at 15 hours of playtime.

THIS is how you remaster a classic SNES JRPG without completely changing the aesthetic. This game has the perfect pacing, multiple solid stories, a great overarching plot, and a decent combat system. My only gripes are that I found the Edo Japan and Near Future chapters to drag on a bit. I believe the random encounter rate also should have been toned down a bit in the Middle Ages chapter. Overall a fantastic game worthy of its cult classic charm, and this is the definitive version.

100% completed in 92 hours.

An exercise in disappointment. Xenoblade 3 is worse than the previous two entries, and even X, by a large margin.

There are a lot of bizarre choices, but most of all for me were the battle system, balancing and story in general.

The battle system is questionable in that it tries to be far, far simpler than 2's but it ends up being too messy. You have easier to understand gimmicks, but the gimmicks end up taking 0 brain power and are what consist of 99% of your battles. In every single boss battle, 90% of my damage were from the gimmicks and the regular combat just felt like a waste of time. This was sort of the case in 2 as well, but in 2 there was a sense of depth to the gimmick at least.

As far as the balancing goes, it punishes you if you do side content at all. I was consistently 10-20 levels above every story boss, and I wasn't even doing all of the side content, just a bit. What's funny is I completely skipped side content in the last third of the game and I was still vastly overleveled -- even for all of the side content. Once I hit level 65~ at the end of the midgame the only things left were the superbosses. While I was occasionally overleveled in 1 and 2, it was never that off.

The story's just kinda a dumpster fire, I'm not sure what to say that hasn't already been said to death. The pacing is glacial and every single conflict is stupid, they were lazy enough to make it so 'muh macguffin' was the context for nearly every fight in the entire game.

I ended up doing every sidequest and all the superbosses, but not without plenty of regret. The only area this game shines in is content. It's packed, but that's not saying it when most of it's hollow.

Anybody telling you this game is good or worthwhile probably hasn't finished or is trolling you. I refuse to believe otherwise. This game needs plenty of patches to even become average in quality.

Reviewed after a little over 100 hours of playtime, 100% of the single player completed, and every weapon in the game used up to at least 1-star level.

The original Splatoon released around the same time I graduated high school. Needless to say, I'm extremely nostalgic for it. Unfortunately, these are the kind of games to die off when a new one drops, since they're almost entirely multiplayer. Fortunately, Splatoon 3 is easily the best yet.

My favorite single player campaign thus far, some of the best gameplay additions, and solid new weapons bolster Splatoon 3 to new heights. I sunk 600 hours into Splatoon 2, and I wouldn't be surprised if I get even more out of this. I strongly recommend this even if you don't like third person shooters much as it's simply a fun and original experience.

Platinumed in 50 hours.

I bought Chained Echoes on a whim with some early Christmas cash. I was browsing the PSN store and the cover art for Chained Echoes caught my eye so I looked into the rave reviews it was getting and snatched it. It was the smartest decidion I've made in ages because Chained Echoes is fuckin amazing.

It is a solo-developed indie (j)RPG where almost every little thing is a reference to classics. The director's favorite games include Xenogears and Final Fantasy Tactics, according to interviews, and his taste oozes from the plot and aesthetic. Chained Echoes eloquently avoids the pitfalls of its peers: there's no attempt at quirky 4th wall breaking meta humor, nor is the gameplay terrible or barebones. Hell, it'd also quite long and has tons of side content. It really is just a genuine classic-feeling (j)RPG developed by a genius on a small budget. I can't recommend it enough.

Platinumed in around 35 hours.

I wasn't expecting to love Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot as much as I did. I'd heard mixed reception going in, and I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a modern rendition of all 3 Legacy of Goku games fused into one beautiful gem. The cutscenes are gorgeous, there's plenty of niche references that only diehard fans will recognize, and the combat met my expectations. Does it drag at times? Sure, but if you love this series as much as I do then you won't be able to help but adore this.

Pros:
Faithful adaptation of Z.
Combat is easy to understand, but not too simple.
Plenty of fanservice.
Visuals are nice, as is the OST.
RPG elements are a fun addition.

Cons:
Sidequests are a little too repetitive.
Random battles are repetitive.

90/100.

Platinumed in 70 hours.

I started Lost Sphear as a filler game in between big releases, so I went in with minimal expectations. I've read a lot of praise for I Am Setsuna, so I figured the developer's next game might be good. To make a long story short, I was bored out of my mind the entire time. I ended up putting it on hold 30% of the way through, only picking it back up 2 months later since I wanted to complete it out of obligation. The combat is fine, creative even, but that's about the only praise I can give it. The story is mediocre, the pacing is awful, the characters are forgettable, and it just ends up dragging on and on. It's the epitome of a "mid" JRPG.