Came for the twins, stayed for the Kingdom of Elgado!

Monster Hunter Rise is often compared to its very popular predecessor MH World and I don't think a comparison between those two games is fair, as it's really just a case of apples and oranges. For the sake of explaining it, I'll give a rundown of the differences between the two entries though.

First of all, this game was designed for the Nintendo Switch in mind. Given the portable nature of this hybrid console, Rise streamlined the gameplay loop a fair bit in order to make it more accessible to a pick-up-and-play gamestyle. This includes faster hunts, monsters being instantly shown on the minimap, increased traversal options with the Palamutes and the ability to pause the game anytime when you're not playing with others - a very nice feature to have (which was missing in World)! As a tradeoff, it doesn't have the expansive ecosystem or the tracking of monster footprints from World, so it's less immersive in that regard. But those gameplay changes aren't necessarily bad, they're just different. I for one appreciate the fast-paced and direct nature of Rise; it's a welcome change after spending hundreds of hours with the slower gameplay of World. Rise's combat specialises in the usage of the wirebugs, they serve as a mechanic to either perform special skills (similar to the ones in Generations) or can be used for easy movement as a grappling hook. Getting used to these little fellas can feel weird at first, but once you know your way around them they're just a ton of fun to use and can totally change the way you approach certain monsters. As an example, the flagship monster Magnamalo inflicts a special debuff that can only be cleansed through wirebug usage, so you need to keep the bar in mind and use the dash whenever you want to cure the ailment. Alongside Magnamalo, most of the other newcomers in Rise are great to fight aswell! Goss Harag is probably my favorite new addition, love his Yeti-inspired design and the fight in general. Looking forward to many great fights in Sunbreak too!

The Village quests ease you fairly well into the game, even though the first set of ranks were quite boring for someone acquainted with the franchise. Still a good introduction for new hunters and even allows you to skip the entire Low Rank of the Hub quests. Speaking of the Gathering Hub, it's rather... desolate these days on the PC port. Atleast there's the Better Matchmaking mod, which removes the Region Lock and helps you find matches a bit faster, but having to rely on a mod for something as basic as worldwide play is quite a bummer. Note that this is not an issue with the original version of the game on Switch and was only added to the PC port for some strange reason, so the game itself can't really be blamed for this. Another cool mod I can recommend is RiseTweaks for removing the framerate cap on cutscenes - another thing that should have been in the PC port from the start! Anyways, finding multiplayer matches over join requests isn't that hard for key quests (good luck finding a partner for event quests on PC though) and you should be able to reach Master Rank in no time. I can't really comment on the Master Rank content yet, as I just started Sunbreak yesterday, but it's pretty amazing so far!

My final thoughts? Rise is another wonderful Monster Hunter game and I had a great time with the base game on PC despite the aforementioned strange issues with the port. Liked it so much that I got the Sunbreak bundle on Switch as well, so make of that what you will. I think you'll get a great experience on any platform, just pick between the eye candy version (PC) or the one with the thriving playerbase (Switch). Can't go wrong here!

It's Rewind Time.

Mega Man is a frustrating game, which is a real shame, as it holds some interesting concepts! I tried playing the original NES version of Mega Man several times before, but always quit early on because of the amount of unfairly placed obstacles and enemies and never even managed to beat a level. This time I decided to give it another shot, as the Legacy Collection has a rewind feature - which turned out to be a real game changer. (Obviously this wasn't a feature in the original Mega Man, so I'm not going to add any points for it, but I'm glad it's in there, so I could experience the game to the end.)

Being able to do the initial six levels in any order as you please is a cool idea, you can just play the stage you feel like playing at the moment. I've only learned later on that there's an "optimal" progression route or something, but I liked being able to choose which boss to go up against next. Despite being seemingly disconnected at first, doing levels in a specific order can change the way you approach them, as each boss you defeat nets you a new power themed after them. Ice Man's power lets you freeze enemies mid-air, Bomb Man's power lets you detonate an AoE bomb and Elec Man's power makes you shoot electric beams in all directions. Each power has a different use and can change the way you play a stage. Unfortunately, there's a specific case if you don't have Guts Man's power before doing Elec Man's stage - you can't reach an item that's required to complete the game. This was the case for me and I was unable to proceed in the final stage, as I was missing the Magnet Beam and had to backtrack (causing me to have to revert to an earlier save file). Speaking of the final stage, I respect everyone who actually beat it without using save states, rewind or anything like that. It's all the frustrating parts of earlier levels cranked up to 11, featuring boss rematches against all the earlier bosses right before the final boss. Flame Man's spamming fire pillars again and you can't do anything against it? Too bad, enjoy starting from Bomb Man's fight again. The infamous Yellow Devil fight wasn't even that bad compared to some other bosses, as he'd always follow the same moveset patterns. I'm convinced Cut Man and Fire Man can actually read your future though.

After having rewinded more than in my entire playthrough of Life is Strange 1, I was able to have a decent time with Mega Man despite the infuriating game design. Hopefully the later entries will cut back on some of the comically placed enemies and obstacles, because I like the idea with the progression and the unlockable powers!

Ever been interested in the Persona series? Start with this one!

As a big fan of Persona 3, Reload was the game I was looking forward to the most in 2024 alongside Infinite Wealth, so I did the same as with IW and held off on watching trailers past the announcement one entirely to experience the changes for myself. When the release date came closer, I began to see more and more doomposting for Reload and even considered holding off on buying it because of how negatively this game was treated by others. I'm glad that didn't get to me in the end and I could form my own opinion of the remake of one of my favorite games.

First off, the presentation in Reload is amazing right off the bat, ranging from the upgraded artstyle to the dynamic menus and improved character models, it's just so very pleasant to look at. This also includes animations - the Ultimate moves of the characters look super cool. As someone who only ever really played Portable before, the upgrade in presentation was a huge point for me. Sure, the updated environmental design of the overworld is great, but the cherry on top are the revamped Tartarus blocks. The floors are no longer mere reskins with the same layout, now every block has a detailed new look and a different pattern. Tartarus changes don't stop here though, like the previous top-down camera has been turned into a proper third-person one, which I believe adds to the immersion a lot, despite being so seemingly insignificant at first. Furthermore, exploration is incentivized with mini-bosses being accessible in ordinary floors now alongside the addition of lucrative floor-specific events like locked or special chests. Can't forget the revamped Golden Hands in Reload either, as they provide a large amount of XP now (like in Persona 4) instead of dropping items. A great change for everyone who hated grinding and the new Great Clock random event can boost two of your teammates' levels on a whim, so no one has to fall behind! I believe the new Tartarus has something in store for everyone, so even if you were turned off by the gameplay in the original, giving it a second look might be worth it...

Voice acting in Reload is top notch. I don't share the somewhat popular sentiment of Yukari and Aigis sounding worse than their original counterparts at all, they're probably even my favorite new castings. That being said, personally I wouldn't say there's a single bad casting within the new voice actors, I enjoyed all of their performances. Emotional scenes got me tearing up several times, I got shivers during others. Not to disregard some of the original actors, but Reload really elevated some characters for me, just with their new performances (Yuko, Chidori and Fuuka are great examples). Also love how every social link is completely voiced now, it's a huge boost in immersion. As for social links in general, I'm glad the new Link Episodes exist, they're basically mini social links for the male party members and give you some insight into their life. A great way to add some interaction with them to the game without replacing the already existing social links! The SEES hangouts during nighttime also fulfill a similar role in giving your teammates more screentime without taking up meaningful time (considering the abundance of free time at night in P3), this also includes new events like several study sessions with the team. Those activities aren't just for fun though, you gain new passive abilities for the other members or gain extra knowledge points while studying with the others, the integration is seamless.

The new soundtrack is... good! Not much to say here, I like the remixes of the original songs and the new songs are bangers. Color Your Night is one of the very best vocal tracks in the series and It's Going Down Now still stays hype after listening to it over and over. Shoutout to the new remix of Changing Seasons.

There's a whole lot more to unpack about this game, but for the time being I have said everything that was on my mind. My thoughts are still pretty hazy, despite completing Reload hours ago, but I hope you could get something useful out of my review either way. As always, thanks for reading!

So uh, I think this might end up being the year of Mario Kart for me. Idk why but I feel like playing and reviewing them all. Besides Double Dash as I don't own it and can't run it on my craptop. Either way, 64 was one of the big Mario Kart games I missed alongside Double Dash. I really don't know why I never picked this up years ago, cuz after finally playing it, I just know I would have had a blast playing it with friends.

In terms of controls and how your kart feels, this is miles better than Super I think. The drifting doesn't feel like ass anymore and is pretty solid here. Though, it can be a little tricky to pull off and you can spin out if you don't constantly move the control stick, however it feels pretty nice. Honestly a lot of the time you don't even need to drift as you can turn really well without it, and the courses for the most part don't require drifting. This is a huge plus from Super I think.

Another big improvement is the track design. The courses are now fully 3D and they're just so much more fun to play through. There's a couple I'm not the biggest fan of (I'm looking at you Toad's Turnpike and Yoshi Valley) but in general, this is a very solid selection. Also every stage is distinct and doesn't share the same 5 or 6 level themes like Super did so that's a massive improvement.

The items are also improved tho they can be sort of weird. The red shells are actually super effective in this game, as long as they don't hit a wall. Banana bunches come in 5's now, which I found interesting as this is the only Mario Kart game I've played so far which does that. Shells now rotate around you. The addition of other items like the gold mushroom or blue shell are also very nice. But getting these items can be kinda weird. There were a handful of instances where I was in 2nd place and I was just handed stars and lightning bolts which is just really OP. It's weird but I wasn't complaining because the AI in this game can be brutal

I played on every CC (except for Mirror Mode) and got every gold cup, and the CPU's on 150cc can be brutal. In general, the rubber-banding in this game is nuts but on 150cc, a couple wrong moves can completely screw you over unless you get lucky. This combined with the fact you can spin out way easier, made 100cc the ideal engine class to play on. With friends tho, I'm sure 150 is a blast.

That's another thing, I played this alone. I wasn't able to play battle mode but from what I've seen, it looks like an absolute blast. I'm only judging it from videos, but I can say it's definitely a solid battle mode when compared to other Mario Kart games. That plus the actual racing, and I'm sure if I played this when I was younger I'd love it more. I think a big part in me giving it a 7 and not anything lower despite some gripes is my nostalgia for the N64. Even despite not playing it until this year, it does bring me back to the 2013/2014 days where the N64 was my favorite console. I just love the aesthetic what can I say.

So yeah I'm pretty happy I ended up enjoying this game as I thought the controls would be way worse tbh. Back then, I played Diddy Kong Racing and didn't vibe with it much so I figured this would have the same fate. Or maybe I just need to play Diddy Kong Racing again cuz I was probably wrong back then lol. Either way, solid Mario Kart and a big improvement from Super for sure!

A great little collectathon you can beat in one sitting. The launch of Celeste 64 caught me entirely by surprise and the fact that this game was made in just a week is astonishing. Not much to say about it except that it's a lot of fun (despite the janky camera) and translates the gameplay elements of Celeste into 3D fairly well. Wish it was a bit longer, but I'm not really complaining since it was made in such a short time - maybe this concept will be fully realized one day if the reception is positive? Only time will tell.

Final stats (taken from the results screen):
🍓x25
💀x089
⏱47:55:455

And to think, I thought I was done with Celeste this month. I heard this got released yesterday, and it's free, so I had to go and play it. For only being made in a week, this is very impressive. Celeste transitions surprisingly well into 3D. You lose your upward dash in this game but everything else is here. Yes even your grab which I stupidly didn't realize was a thing until 2/3rds into my playthrough. Once I did, it definitely clicked way more since I was infinitely wall-jumping to do stuff before I learned grabbing was part of her moveset. I really like the implementation of the camera and it having a big part with the various puzzles. The early 3D atmosphere was also really nice. It never got crazy difficult like Celeste but what was here was fun. It's only like an hour long so there really isn't much content, but this could be a good stepping stone into something greater. Either way, fun game..just wish it was longer.

Also, I got all 30 strawberries, that last cassette tape under Badeline was definitely the hardest part of the game but it was very cool.

Great fangame! The puzzle quality is really good throughout the entire game and the environmental design is top notch. Revolution takes a lot of inspiration of Portal 2 and while it feels unoriginal in some regards (particularly in terms of story structure), the game still has its own charm. Voice acting was enjoyable too and Conly as a companion was a real highlight. The 'walking simulator' reviews on this game aren't too far-fetched either, considering a lot of time in Old Aperture is just walking a narrow path and shooting the occasional portal every now and then to continue. It really feels a little drawn out and there could have been a few more puzzles instead of 'exploration' parts. By the way, the final puzzle was pretty awesome! Ending was... alright.

If you're a fan of the Portal duology, Revolution is a strong recommendation on my end. Just don't go in expecting a mindblowing narrative and an exact replica of Portal humor though, all you need to remember is that it's free (and fun)!

jesus fucking christ.

OKAY actual review (spoilers at the very end):
I think NSO has kind of decent ideas (the throughline seems to be “the endless cycle of chasing clout is bad and mentally ill people should get help instead of turning to the internet to cope”) but a lot of the endings are like, “Woah!! That was craaaazy! Wasn’t that fucked up?” And then they all just end without really even saying much or trying to elaborate on any kind of point. As someone who went out of her way to get the endings all boy did it make me mad to grind for some of them that were only a couple sentences long before abruptly ending jesus lol.

There isn’t even an ending that feels like you can truly win. And that’s not bad, I’m cool with an ending that’s a bit of a downer or things don’t go as planned/you don’t “win”, but NSO doesn’t have any real story to justify these endings or make them satisfying in their own right (and it makes less sense that this kind of thing exists in a raising sim where the whole point of the genre is to Raise Or Lower Number And Win). In the endings where KAngel gets tons of subs, she can dump you and then get into a scandal herself, break the internet, feel empty that she’s made it this far, kill herself onstream, etc etc. And I think I would be fine with some of these if they had anything to actually say or made the loss feel important. They jump right into the shock or weird stuff and then immediately end it with some fuckin textbox like “ohhhh she’s soooo fucked up what did you dooooo”! Like maybe I would like some of these more if they went on for more than 30 seconds and had some closure/thoughts to leave you with!!!

In my head I compared NSO a lot to Doki Doki Literature Club because that's a pretty popular game that also appeals to NSO’s audience of “Yeah this game looks cute and has a cute girl in it …. But be careful. It’s FUCKED UP”. But DDLC has the upper hand because you spend a lot of time getting to know the characters and see their arcs before they suddenly do the big horror twist, and after that every horror moment is carefully placed until it crescendos into the ending sequence. With NSO, there isn't really a story for you to get to know Ame with, you can learn more about her but you can really only bond with her on a surface level (taking her out, sex, playing games) before they start spamming you with horror stuff back to back with little to no breaks. You never share a truly deep moment or a moment that would legit make me go, “Oh wow, I really care about her”. As a result, whenever the game does freaky horror metanarrative-breaking things it’s just, “Oh wow!” in the moment and then it immediately ends, and that's it.

That’s kind of another thing, I just don’t like Ame. Menhera girls just really put me off, it’s one of those things that I think are popular because it’s Japanese/anime. Like the same girls that will go “i wanna die i hate myself im horny im lonely im manipulating people i want money blahbblahblah” also exist in SPADES on Tumblr and Twitter in English/America and everyone can’t stand those type of people (myself included). I just dont like self pitying “I’m so fucked up” manipulative people with mental illness especially when using it to get undeserved sympathy money/things from others. It just annoys me so much. Call it a mix of personal experience and I am mentally ill so I can weigh in on this a little. So when creepy things happen to Ame I just don’t really care. When she’s annoying I get annoyed. When she’s talking about how P-chan isn’t good I just roll my eyes. And I don’t even hate her, like I don’t want to ruin her life or anything, because she isn’t real so it wouldn’t matter. I just want her to like go away and get serious help. This is why the “hospitalize her enough and she becomes normal” ending rules in my opinion.

And THEN… Possibly my most lukewarm take ever, but I just don’t like stories that focus on the need to get likes/followers. I’m really weirded out by people who only care about this. It just feels so vapid and like not a real goal at all, to be obsessed with that kinda thing (one could say this is the point of NSO, but again I feel like the story is lacking and does not speak well on this point).

And she wants all of this shit in a month which is just laughable. Like yeah try getting a million subs in a month I’m sure that will work out for you. When she guilts you for not being able to get her that many followers it’s just fucking stupid, like girl you have been at this for 30 days and you’re an independent streamer. You’re lucky to even have 500 followers. On god plz stop.

I think it’s not impossible to have a good game critiquing the internet, it’s a less popular game but the game Buried Stars (game about 5 kpop stars being stuck in a collapsing building) does a very good job of both telling a compelling story while also weaving in what fame/ followers/internet can do to change people and influence their choices in the moment. Though that game is more about showbiz, it definitely has strong critiques of some of the same things that NSO failed to try to say, because you can grow with the characters and find out deeper things about them and learn on a deeper level how everything affects them. Meanwhile Ame is just constantly in comically high highs and low lows and you can only exchange a couple of messages with her a day, never having a meaningful talk.

And hey! Spoiler time. The twist that P-chan isn’t real is just stupid if you think about it for more than 5 seconds. Who was she having sex with the whole time to the point of making the screen shake (finger blasting queen I guess)? Who was she at the amusement park with and kissing in the ending where she has her livestream outside? Who was walking around in her house and making noise during her livestream where she was talking about mysterious things and even said “Teehee I didn’t tell P-chan I was streaming so they were walking around!” after the stream? In the Labor ending you’re messaging from the computer while she’s away at work and doesn’t come home, what, is she actually at home typing on her computer and just ignoring her own texts to herself then? What about the endings where she blocks you from viewing her page, bro you made the fucking guy up you don’t have to block them they ain’t real they can’t actually see your post anyways!!!! I could literally go on and on but it’s a twist that exists just to be a twist. It doesn’t need to be there and the more you think about it the less sense it makes within the context of the entire rest of the game.

I do not like menhera girls, I do not like plots about chasing after clout, I do not like the lack of writing this game had. I suppose I am out of the target audience for the first two points but overall I feel like a good game should be able to pull you in regardless if you’re not necessarily a huge fan of some of its elements, because it does something good with those elements. This game has nothing to say except internet be crazy and mentally ill people be crazy too, and even then it can’t even be fucking bothered to say that half the time, it just shows you a fucked up anime girl who’s bloody and saying mean things and then it just ends. What an absolute waste.

Another Code: Two Memories ran so A Journey into Lost Memories can take a nice brisk walk on a cool sunny day.

I love A Journey into Lost Memories. I love its world and art style, how it's brimming with personality. I love the interactive environment and its attention to detail. I love being able to play Ashley once again, she has essentially become my video game equivalent of a daughter. I love the loads of subtext this game has with its story and themes of memory, grief, and family. I just cannot emphasize enough how much I love this game.

I could talk so much about this game, but I have love bombed enough as it is. I am just very happy Lost Memories has been made accessible to the general public. The story it tells is really unique and honest with its aforementioned themes that I find to be beautiful and have some special meaning to me. I will be remembering this game for time eternal.

Anyways, here's hoping we see Hotel Dusk come to the switch next <3