played it with pistol starts and no saves this time. not the "intended" way but it makes secret hunting and triggering infights way more worthwhile. the extra engagement is enough to save some of the boring maps in the mid-game lull.
episode 4 is way better than anyone gives it credit for, E4M2 and E4M6 are real clinics on the art of asshole level design (laudatory)

NES emulation: Mastered.
Game boy advance emulation: MAstered.
Playstation emulation: Heres when they start trying to trick you
Super Nintendo emulation: This ones hard

certainly more ambitious than the "third versions" that came before it but it feels like a retreat back to normalcy after how fresh BW1 was. it falls back into the comfort food tier of RPG and to get that fix i would rather play FRLG or GSC again.

around the end of the second stratum it shorted something in my brain and i could not stop playing it for hours and hours in one go. it's refreshingly straightforward but still mysterious and rewarding enough to really get lost in. and yuzo koshiro's soundtrack here is an instant classic.

it's good but tbh the most memorable thing about it is it is the absolute furthest i've progressed into a fire emblem before turning battle animations off

bowser did woodstock 99

undiluted median 90s anime aesthetic pandering goop and i have no choice but to love it. kohran forever.

the thing about IC's mega man games is the NES installments of that series, especially the latter three, are pretty "polished" by modern standards so the modern sheen on 9 and 10 wasn't that distracting. but taking NES castlevania and buffing out all the rough edges really breaks the mood bad. those games were cold and foreboding owing not only to their timeless art direction but also their willingness to throw you into some downright evil corners. meanwhile COTM just feels like some game.

the actual racing is so toothless it would make mario kart blush, but honestly, who cares. this is one of the most effortlessly slick games ever. even after 20 years and a hundred thousand times more transistors per console no one can come up with an effect cooler than the way tail lights streak in the dark here.

the massive attack reference went right over all our ten-year-old heads

why does josh allen look exactly like the stop skeletons from fighting guy

not as good as I or III but a really strong return to form after IV. most of the gameplay changes have thoughtful intent unlike IV where none of them did and the bouncy early red book soundtrack is god-tier.

the crazy thing about classic MM is as iconic as it is it's one of those series where popular opinion is consistently off base

really difficult for me to imagine playing another RPG that gets saved solely by its great cast the way this one does

i so badly wish i lived in the timeline where masahiro sakurai kept making mid-budget one-off games like this.