some of the best games ive played fully utilise the interactive medium to immerse the player into it's world, characters, and get across meaning, with fear and hunger being probably one of, if not the best example ive ever seen in a game doing this and absolutely perfecting this, the ludonarrative harmony created by the completely unfair dominating world filled with a dark and oppressive atmosphere, with every mistake you do booting you to the title screen with scarce saving, always keeping you on edge and a constant stream of anxiety for the next possible failure lying in wait, making it clear to the player that this is not a world built for them, and yet, the player has the ability and want to keep pushing further and harder, gaining more and more knowledge every attempt until finally reaching the (actual) end goal. this approach aids the developer into creating a commentary on human nature, that despite the fragility of the human body (through the mental torment endured by the player and possible lost limbs along the way) the human spirit is capable of persevering, with the player by the end of the game having felt and experienced this fact of life, a rather bright conclusion found from the desolate world of fear and hunger.

the vibes are maybe a teensy bit better in the original but aside from the controls being weird (not a big problem since they can be remapped) and the depth perception sometimes feeling off, this game is so peak it's crazy - maybe it's just the autism speaking but playing the game at all just made me feel so happy in a way that's so hard to describe. everything about this bleeds insane amounts of charm, from the ways enemies dance around in battle to the random 2d platformer sections to whatever the fuck happened in the ending and it all just culminates to an experience that means so much to me in spite how little meaning anything in it actually has. play hylics 2!

(one personal little knock; the music has gone from directionless neo-psychedelic post-rock strumming in the first game to direction-ful neo-psychedelic psych rock strumming in this, which although this soundtrack 100% has some great stuff to offer i do prefer what the first was doing. i especially miss how noise rock-y the first game's ost got on tracks like Messy Song - hearing that song for the first time in-game changed me as a human being - but oh well i can live with what this game does)

some of the best writing in video games, insanely witty, unique moral dilemmas (far more so than the usual bethesda “do you want to kill everyone for no reason or help them i guess”) awesome level up/perk system and character creation - none being just a complete damage bonus, always fun to play around with a new skill, really unique setting and worldbuilding - whoever came up with caesar’s legion should get a million trillion dosh in a briefcase. the shooting gameplay can feel a little dated at times, but its not so bad its unplayable. theres nothing id rather do than listen to the mojave music radio whilst hoping for a nuclear winter

probably the best gameplay in the series, the enemy ai is on another level and all the cqc and sneaking is so fun, but damn does this game take itself way too serious, as part of the mgs series as well as on its own merit, the gruff voice of kiefer sutherland does not fit the outlandish story thats being presented, something i loved about the mgs series was covering major topics whilst never taking itself too serious and having a fun story and detailed characters, but in mgs5 its just a few grizzly men and a stripper with “justified reasons” for her skimpy appearance running doing war stuff. at least d dog is in it.

the original ni no kuni was probably one of my favourite games growing up, and the sequel was probably one of the last times ive been properly excited for a game besides botw. i remember it being a little dissapointing, the main gameplay was alright - the kingdom manager was a little fun and the skirmish things were enjoyable enough, but honestly i preferred the first game's even if it was a little unconventional. The story starts off with an actually really interesting intro with the whole president being transported into the other world and nuke thing, but it starts trailing off when it starts focusing on the catboy king making a new city rather than roland, putting him in a backseat for the whole game until pretty much the final boss for basically the same twist from the first game. i do remember there being a cool little section in the water place about letting go of the past, but it's basically as good as the game gets story wise - the first game's story wasnt exactly shakespeare but was fairly charming and had a way stronger focus with Oliver's mother, juxtaposed with the catboy being forced out of his kingdom "oh wait everything's fine he made friends with the conspirators midway through the game, they can keep the kingdom they stole, its all good". the visuals do look fairly good, considering studio ghibli pulled out of this one, with the world losing a bit of that hand painted art direction the first was going for, but still looks pretty nice.

honestly a dissapointing sequel, but an alright game on it's own - although the 12 year old inside me will never forget.