The famous mario 64. A game that is still fun but also it's mechanics aged like milk.

Now, to give credit where credit is due level design is really good. Not just good also it's consistent. The most consistent 3d mario even(didn't play odyssey). There is gimmick sections like slides or bowser's linear sections but they are rare compared to the other mario games gimmicky sections.

Level design is good because almost every level designed to be find lots of discoveries in every part of the level. Also choose your own level idea supports it's freedom to it's fullest. You only need to get some number of stars to get to the next section. You don't have to collect everything and I respect this decision a lot. Because the option of skipping a level if I don't like it is nice, because some levels are just not fun.

But gameplay mechanics are like... Ice levels on crack. They are daaaamn slippery it's like every surface mario walks on is made on ice. Also this makes mario 64's slopes the worst. If you are on a slope, you are dead. Because slope's momentum is so strong that mario's jump isn't enough to recover yourself, no it's actually makes your painful mistake intensify and send you faster to your death and I hate it.

Another thing I hate is moving platforms don't add to your jump speed compared to the 2d titles. So if you are on a platform and decided to jump, say bye bye because platform pasts mario underneath while you are on the air and it's too late to realize you need to move now. Because mario's movement in the air just sucks.

Yeah mario's movement in the air suddenly becomes rigid as heck. You can only move forward or backwards for a little bit. That's it. Again compared to the 2d mario's, his air movement just suck ass.

Also who decided to put mario a u-turning animation??? WHOOOOOOOOOO!!???
I CAN'T COUNT HOW MANY TIMES I FALL TO MY DEATH BECAUSE GARBAGE MARIO DECIDED TO NOT TURN INSTANTLY BUT DO A U-TURN ON A SMALL PLATFORM

Yeah I hate the movement and think every mario 3d sequel is superior to this game on movement mechanics. But at least level design is good so that makes this game not a bad game I guess

This game was overhyped for me. From what I read from everyone, I was expecting to get a depressive tale with lovable folks. Not just that, I heard this game was the best of persona. I... Didn't get that.

First let me start with the positives because they are short

Sun arcana is really emotional and I liked that.
Last month(last %10 of the game) is awesome with it's melancholic, majora's mask like dark vibes.
Lots of persona to fusion of course.
Best persona soundtrack

And the rest is...
Story is a giant timewaster that repetitive as heck. You learn about a person that have potential, kill the shadow boss that suddenly appeared, let that person join your group, repeat x6. Story only starts to go somewhere the moment bad guy group shows up(in the damn last quarter of this game).

People that say this game is depressive as heck just talks about intro of this game, persona calling animation that uses a gun to the head, 2 social links that is a bit depressive and last %10 of this game. But how a game can be named depressive if the %85 of the content is la la la upbeat colorful happy tones? I literally have any idea. Btw I don't have any problem with upbeat atmosphere but fans themselves create wrong expectations

Question is, can you like a story if only %10 of it just interesting? It's really good %10 I won't lie but what about the repetitive as heck rest? Sorry but I am not the "ending justifies the repetition" kind of person. Sorry.

Gameplay is... Repetitive as heck too. Level design is non-existent, one lazy person just flat out modelled 8 different room and colored it different 10 times with combining a randomizer and called it a day. What. The. Fu#k. Don't get me started on repeat enemies as well, if there is 20 enemy models, then don't worry they also have 10 different color variations that only difference of them is a slight stat difference. Only thing that refreshes the pace a little bit is, bosses are once in a while needs a different strategy rather than spam the same handful of elemental attacks and watching the same all out attack for the millionth time.

Social links
Other than Sun, lovers and hierophant social link...
Rest is meh at best and plain garbage at worst. Moon arcana(that damn fat kid), chariot(stubborn sports kid), hanged man(pedo... social link), priestess(i can't cook food fuuka soical link) etc. If your excuse is, in reality there are idiots or infuriating people in real life as well then why I am playing this game? This is a work of fiction. Give me something memorable. Unfortunately there is not much of that memorable feeling...

So yeah. For the %15 content sake, I don't give 1/5. But I can easily say, I can't see any of the praise other folks does. Sometimes I hate myself with joining the flow of hype and taking wrong decisions. I have not just persona 3 and 4. I also have 5 and it costed me. Probably I couldn't be able to gather enough motivation to start 5 so I really did a wasteful decision for myself.

-First trailer comes out:
+Oh shit. It looks something like shadow of the colossus puzzle bosses (⁠・⁠o⁠・⁠)

-Reviews comes out.
+They say it's a open world ubisoft style game.

-My expectations get shattered.
+But friend convinces me it's gonna be great, so I buy it.

-Turns out It's a grab plant/climb tower/craft garbage kinda ubisoft game first, boss game second.

+Dam#it.

What "hero" means? Is it the most "Selfless" one? Or is it the most "Selfish" one?

That's a great question that doesn't have a single answer, that's why you decide how the story want to go and see the results of it.

So, to show how interpreting the idea of hero goes differently with a new journey, creators of this story choosed to create 3 Routes. Or 3 Arcs. And these are:

[Some Spoilers]

First is about a single lone King's selfless story that ended in regret and acceptance.

Second is a clash about the concept of "true hero".
One believes to eternal savior and one believes to eternal sacrificer.

Third is about a Selfish hero that sacrifices anything else to be a hero to his closest ones.

Edit: after playing hollow ataraxia I can say there is actually 4 routes. Even tho hollow ataraxia is not shirou's story, it's about the holy grail's true nature and what's really in it. And it's worth it.

So it's perfect right? In this journey about a Holy grail war, we see how each route get develop each other more and more while fleshing out it's "hero" philosophy. So, this means it also manages to keep story engaging and suprising. But unfortunately I didn't say the truth, it's not perfect. Because it also comes with it's negatives. In my opinion it's more and more insistency on plot focus takes away from the character developments.

I am gonna flesh out what I meant with comparing routes.

Fate Route is the most character oriented one. Plot is basic and bare bones, because there is one thing it focuses on and that is "Saber". The Cursed King. This makes this route not that suprising and cliche at some points but characters wise and romance wise it's the best. I can go as far as to say this route feels like it got cut from Tsukihime. It's that similar.

Ubw is the most balanced one. Plot's hidden points started to get explored here, also while story goes on, we see the clash between ideologies throughout in the story that is hecking Engaging!
Unfortunately romance wise, Rin isn't as connected to ideology war as much as I wanted. But still it's wholesome moments and great chemistry with Shirou makes it a success.

Hf is the one that focused on plot's "Unknowns" and it's the best when it comes to "suprise". You can't predict what is gonna happen next because it is the "unknown" after all. It made my thoughts rush with lots of theories and ideas and that's why plot wise for me was the most engaging one.

But Character wise... it's feels rushed to me. Especially for the second half after that traumatic event. Main character Shirou's WHOLE motivation goes opposite on a whim because of Sakura. Unfortunately it doesn't makes sense for me because even Rin herself or Archer himself only manage to teach him his self worth in the end of ubw and here it goes completely opposite in quarter of it's time.
Not just that there is also Sakura.

Oh Sakura... You can't know how much expectations I had for Sakura's romance route. The moment I saw her first Cg in the Fate route, I believed it was gonna be the best one. Her sister like caring behaviour and her support for us made me believe it was gonna be the best.

I was wrong.

Sakura was the jealous and obsessed one. Even if we consider her "traumatic" event or her "strange" situation, her actions are the worst than any villain throughout in the story. To the point she is ready to destroy her own sister for her own hapiness. And no, it's her choice. Even the game itself says this. Unfortunately I don't like this character and because of this, her true ending didn't had much impact for me. In my opinion she deserves the hf's normal ending where she punished to wait eternally for her happiness.

If I think this game have these negatives then why perfect score? Because of "Realta Nua". The additional ending to Fate Route. That is about a man and a woman:

One who searches for an eternity
One who waits for an eternity.

And this additional ending made everything worth it for me. To the point I can say this ending is genuinely my Favourite single piece of work in the entire visual novel media.

After all there is nothing more heartwarming then seeing a person's sacrifice with it's Reward. A true Deserving one.

I came across this game when I was looking at anime avatars and thought the art was cool and cute❤️ to the point I used one of the character's avatar as a profile picture(as you can see).

Also it's detective focus interested me as well. So I started playing, I only played 5-6 hours and left on the part where you need to do lab work with Lupin. Why? Because I didn't had fun. Maybe I am overreacting to this game but this game have nothing going for it?

This is not my first vn but my first time playing from otome genre(focused to girls). I don't know if it's because of that or not but this game's detective logic is barebones as heck. Characters felt to me bunch of cliches as well.

I know I am talking a bit early here, but even if the game gets good later, first 5-6 hours have nothing going for it, all of the cases essentially solves itself with the guilty person comes up to your face almost screaming I am the bad guy. For example there is a second case early on where you need to solve who stole students money and the thief himself just comes up to you and starts a fight and I am not kidding.

For the characters, it's hard to talk about them when I saw so little other than some cliche scenes, but one thing really bothered me and that is Herlock Holmes(heh look at that name, they did it that name before ace attorney did). Because even tho game is about detective "students" on a school and everyone looks 20 years old, Herlock's voice actor sounds like on his 60's somehow. His face and voice doesn't match in the slightest. Say it nitpick or not but I wanted to say.

Anyway, that's what I think about this game even tho I haven't even finished it. Maybe it's get better but first hours was so boring to me that unfortunately it ends here for me. Just because of it's colorful nice art, it does have it's value but I think I would rather look at the game cg's rather than continuing to play it.

(note: this is a watch review and I looked at the youtube translation from the user aRdW)
Game is about ghost rumor hunting with the girls group that doesn't love mystery but have to because baka Mika is their friend and they don't want her to die just because she can't stop her curiosity, so rest of the game happens.

Unfortunately stories feels like a demo compared to the next one. Most of the ghost cases are super short and forgettable in my opinion, only case that memorable for me was the piano suicide one. Other than that it was just bunch of "let me tell you random horror stories on this Halloween night" kinda random. At least, I liked that they had multiple endings. But game ended on a really interesting cliffhanger and if I found this game in the ps1's prime days I would be pisseddddd I tell you

Peak Video Game Entertainment for me as of now and I don't say something lightly.

If you look at my bio my requirements for a good game, I said: "if it does have a engaging gameplay with variety and depth, fun characters that I can fell in love and admire, really good at pacing with throwing my face a new content at least in every 20 minute." etc. This game have every one of them.

Before starting this game, I really didn't know what should I expect. I knew it was on the list that shows what games Shu Takumi created and I also saw the cover art of it. I love Shu Takumi's works even at his worst of times but seeing the cover... it looked boring. There is a goofy looking man, his head at the ground... sleeping/thinking/resting? And an aura surrounds him. Only thing I felt from the cover is this game is gonna be about shitty cartoon comedy with how goofy the cover looks. But I am glad I was wrong, very very very wrong.

I still think the cover looks atrocious and think that an aura that connects to multiple characters like a spiderweb in the cover would explain this game better. Also I couldn't find any adverts for this game, did Capcom market this game or not? I don't know but if they didn't they made the greatest disservice for this game.

Story

You wake up, you found yourself as a lamp for some reason. You see your body. Dead at the ground. But for some reason your soul isn't on the other side? Your soul somehow stuck in this lamp. Then you see a suspicious person... WITH A GUN. He runs to a lady with his weapon at his hand, he will shoot her!? And then you use a trick to shield her. The next time you look, the killer is dead with your trick and lady is safe. But you started to wonder, why am I dead? And why there is suspicious people that tries to murder this poor lady?

And you go into an adventure while trying to follow the lady to remember your memories, your loved ones, your experiences while you are alive and solve the mystery about who killed you and why?

And damn... what a mystery that is with lots of lovable characters and emotional moments in it. I can't say no more. Go and play it. Even if you don't like it I guarantee you that at least it's gonna be a unique one and that's something rare in this age.

Gameplay

It a puzzle game that you need to solve part by part to advance and uncover the mystery. You are a ghost that can't explore far away, because you have to stay inside of something to not disappear. But you can impersonate an object to do a "trick" to make a way for you. With doing a "trick" you can create a way to an another object that connects to your way and with that you can carry your "ghost" to that object.

For example you are inside a ball, with using the "trick" button for ball to roll, you can arrive to an umbrella. If they are next to each other, you can carry your "ghost" to that umbrella. After that you become the umbrella and now you can use umbrella's "trick" to advance to the next object. Now it's sounds doesn't interesting that much probably?

Until I say, the "Death" comes in. Killers are everywhere and they are here to KILL EVERY ONE OF YOUR LOVED ONES! And you, being a ghost doesn't mean you can't help them. You HAVE TO help them and that's where things get complicated to what trick to use what objects to impersonate and there is looooots of objects to impersonate so don't worry about the variety I would say.

There is lots of planning to do and strategies to create! I would say, this gameplay is probably the best Shu Takumi did to this date. You are not passively trying to find lies here. You are actively trying to save lives and that's why it does make things more exciting.

My favourite game of all time that I recommend to everyone that still have the childish exploration soul in it to experience unique things

I got my 3ds from a relative(long story) then looked at what I can play on it. Saw this Remake/Remaster and said why not? After all this is the game that every retro gamer's favourite game of all time isn't it?

Then played it... and found it... meh/fine? I mean it wasn't a bad experience but it was adventure game as basic as it gets for me? It never pushes limits or tries something experimental I felt? Is it have to be experimental? Of course no but I felt like it tries to stay simple too much rather than use every dungeon or equipment to it's full potential. What I mean is, I felt every dungeon is designed to be beatable with only using that dungeon's gadget except maybe water dungeon, maybe some small moments in other dungeons and finale dungeon but finale dungeon is mostly a challenge dungeon anyway so... Yeah, I found it was a bit simplistic and formulaic unfortunately. Only dungeon that really forced me was the water dungeon. Yeah you need to keep change your euipment a lot maybe, but it's the only one that pushes it's logic to the limit I felt. I had fun with it because of it.

You will probably say what about the world? What about the side activities? What about the time mechanic? What about the ocarina itself?

They were fine. World was the good kind of open, small but full of things to explore(except middle part of hyrule) in every step if you want, so I had fun when I just wanted to explore a bit. Also seeing alternate ones was cool as well. But learning where to go with asking to npc's was not that fun in my opinion. Sheikah stones kind of help in that regard(but also they kind of harm the game with giving solutions to dungeons, I didn't use it for that but it kind of bothered me with how they taking away from the main challenge itself), but still there is some situations you need to find correct npc or do an obtuse task for the correct objective and that wasn't fun for me.(yeah I know retro games tends to do that but that doesn't mean I enjoy searching for one obtuse thing)

Side activities on the other hand... wasn't that engaging for me because of their timing challenge nature, but variety is nice at least. There is some sidequests as well but I haven't cared about them much if I didn't find them coincidentally while doing main missions.

Time mechanic was greatly disappointing for me. When I first saw it changing between kid and adult, Oh my god possibilities are endleessssss. Then I realized that for the main content you only need to use 4 times or something close to that number and disappointed(I don't count moving blocks as a time travel)...

Ocarina was nice and I liked that some of the songs have interesting effects depending on the situation and sometimes you need to use to solve puzzles as well.

Yeah that was how I felt. Fine but not pushing to the limits kind of game for me.

This is one of the rare games that I replayed more than once. Why? Short answer is it's because it's metal gear solid after all. Long answer is really long tho.

I came across mgs franchise when I wasn't engaged with games like right now. One day, when I was looking up to tv to find something interesting, I realized there was a gaming program going on, I said why not check it even tho I won't play it. There was a trailer for mgs4 in it. I was mesmerised with it. There was an old man on top of a boat, saying "bang" "bang" and after that all of the helicopters start falling around him. I was like: WHAT THE HECK!? HE CAN CONTROL METAL WITH HIS HANDS??? Dang... I wonder how the gameplay is like??
After that I saw mgs4 again in top 10 saddest death in gaming videos, but it didn't stick in my mind.

Years later, I learned there was a ps1 emulator released for the android phones. I had a great time with ps1 when I was a kid so I wanted to try it again. But also wanted to try something "new". So I looked up best ps1 games and saw metal gear solid in everywhere. Like every "everywhere". I was like, wow, I wonder why it's regarded that highly? Then I went and tried it and fell in love with it.

Quick stealth gameplay with it's fast movement, big variety in challenge that they kept fresh in every new corner in it's map, highly memorable bosses that I still can't forget about and get teary when I remember their sad stories, story that is both suprising and emotional. What can I want more from that?

Only things I can say bad about it is, it does have back tracking 2 times that felt unnecessary and one section you need to look back of the box(that I don't have). But it's not a big fault for me.

So yeah, this was my first impression of mgs and I fell in love with it. After getting the legacy collection with ps3, of course I replayed it immediately, it's that good. I can recommend to anyone that doesn't insist on graphics and just wants to have a good time.

After playing the remake titles, this game's physics feels wrong to me because this game feels like gravity with %50 less also it's pretty slippery if you hold the run button. But once I get used to movement I found a treasure of a game. Why? Because this game is full of content in. Every. Side. Of. The. Corner. Not even previous games are that full you know. I really find this damn fantastic! There is only one downside to this tho. Upgrades that required to progress in this game are hidden like the other upgrades and at some places it feels a bit frustrating for me. For the compensation they give you a xray machine for seeing hidden walls, but it's range is pretty pathetic so if you forget to spam in every corner, you will probably stuck like me for a while until looking up a guide(I didn't find the ice beam and finding that really took a lot of time for me). But still I love this game, for me it's still have the most realized map and best free exploration of this franchise(currently not played metroid dread)

I enjoy this game, it's trick weapons, it's fast combat, it's bosses, it's crazy monsters and yharnam itself.

It's like souls formula with turbo mod attached to it. Faster moves, aggressive monsters, additional combos with weapons, less stamina management, health reward for countering, no strong defensive equipment etc. And I really enjoyed it for a while.

But I have couple problems, one is late areas... No... Outside of central yharnam and old yharnam nothing feel fleshed out that much to me(cainhurst castle, nightmare of mensis etc). It's ironic because I complained the same thing when writing about demon's souls. But compared to it, this felt even more disappointing to me, because what came before was that much amazing.

Because for me, Yharnam is the best area they have ever did in their entire gaming catalouge. It just gives you the feeling of: you are on a giant world with suprising you with a new challenge, area, building, enemy on Every. Step. Of. The. Way.

Unfortunately Like I said, I wish it did the same thing with outside of the yharnam levels tho. I would say game loses it's "suprise" the moment you finish yharnam and old yharnam. It get samey and bland to be honest and no. Blobby space monsters does not add to my suprise because they act the same way with any other enemy. Dodge and attack. Rinse and repeat until the end of the game. I mean it never gets bad like dark souls later half but it never manages to achieve the amazing highs as the other ones I had played, it kinda gets samey to me. But at least there is one thing I can praise is, it's the most consistent souls game when it comes to quality like demon's souls.

My another problem is why the heck health item farming here is like the demon's souls? It's a bigger problem here because bosses are all about comboing you rather than puzzle like bosses from previous games. It just fu#ks the pacing up with forcing you to farm them after every boss session. Yeah there is a rally system that rewards health when you attack back at them but it kinda gets meaningless when a boss can combo you 5 times with taking your majority of your health. You "have to" farm in this game and that just sucks too much.

Oh also build variety kinda sucks. It's more of a surface level rpg compared to the souls games with essentially forcing everyone to be a fast dps character. But then my question comes in, why did they make this an rpg if build variety is low? Just put the health and damage upgrades and scrap everything else. Being able to use every weapon actually can make the game much fun to explore in my opinion, because it's only way to differentiate your gameplay.

Also there is an interesting new thing called chalice dungeons, they are randomly generated dungeons but main ones are not randomly generated. I only did the main ones but they are mixed bag in my opinion. Because every room is so similar to another one, also it just have a one gimmick and that is find the key and find the boss door, that's it. It gets boring after a while. Yeah it's optional yes but that doesn't mean it's immune to criticism.

Also there is a dlc. First part of it a recycled but remixed version of Yharnam that felt weird to me, but later parts of it is simply amazing and ends with a higher point then the main game itself could with giving you a messed up monster world with really complex layout in it's last area for me. My only problem of it, bosses were really easy? Maybe chalice dungeons made me overpowered I don't know.

While I may be overpraising the dlc, It was the reason I am giving this game a 4/5 because it cleaned this dissapointing feeling the later areas and the chalice dungeons gave to me with it's amazing level design.

So The famous Witcher 3... The game that did it all! The game that have the best gameplay, best atmosphere, best story, best characters, best side quests, best side content! Best at everything it does!!

If so, then why I left disappointed?

Overbloated World
So, this time Witcher goes full open world!... So how is it then...? It was boring. Too boring in fact. Why? Because world feels like big for the sake of it. Game world feels empty, only important places are just the settlements and it's just the %5 part of the map. I understand that they want to varied up the world with seperating to 4 maps and adding how many places to visit as they can. But the problem is it's designed to look good, not functional. What I mean is, the most you do in the maps are uncovering the question marks beside main and side quests and they are ubisoft quality at best. Copy paste enemy camps or monster camps or boring loot chests everyhere. After I realized that, open word lost all of it's magic for me. Only thing I did after that is, go to the another fast travel point and use it to arrive to another quest location. That's it. Neat thing is, some of the places doesn't have enough fast travel points. So you know what that means? More horse riding of course. It would be bearable maybe if the horse riding did work but it doesn't.. this game's movement physics and horse riding sucks literally. You and horse keep stuck at smallest peeble or wood, physics takes precedemment over input, so if it's a slope and you start sliding, say goodbye to your controller because it will refuse to listen you, horse refuse to do listen your input as well when it's near a wall or fence and makes tight places infuriating. Also depending on the location you are, jump button changes it's mind and does it's own thing, for example if you are near the sea, it's always does the dive move, or if you are near a wall, it decides to climb on it even if you didn't intend to and animation lock you depending on how long the wall is etc. Strange thing is, people like to dunk on red dead 2 but at least it's horse riding works (also world feels more alive with the constant random events it throws at you), but still acts like witcher 3 is the masterpiece??? If you can say rdr2 have this problem, I am sorry but witcher 3 have as well. Only thing I can say good about the world is, there is optional caves to fight a strong monster then collect it's loot. At least it felt a bit more handcrafted then rest of the side activities. Other good thing is Novigrad city is feels handcrafted with how full of content it is compared to the rest of the settlements. But even with that, I couldn't shake off the boredom with the world.

Badly paced Main Story
Main story is all about Ciri, where is Ciri? What happend to Ciri? How Ciri disappeared etc.
And it's boring for me as well. Why? Because story feels like it doesn't progress until the last quarter of the game.
You go into a place, ask Ciri, find someone knowledgeable, that person shows you previous location last Ciri showed, you investigate the place, ask the people that happened to see her, watch a flashback of it, then with the flashback information, you learn about an another place where Ciri can be. Repeat this 4 damn times. Then you come to the last quarter of the game, game decides to finally progress the story. In the last quarter game becomes more interesting yes, but also feels rushed as well. What I mean is, there is a lot of cool moments but the big "Threat" of this game feels undercooked. He is poorly explained and just does things because he is the cliche, I want power kind of bad guy. I know for a fact that he acts the same in the books as well, but that doesn't mean game couldn't add on his own depth to him. But unfortunately it didn't, because of this, the "confrontation" part of it feels underwhelming. At least Geralt's friends feels pretty fleshed out so emotional moments still hit you but unfortunately pacing issues and boring cliche villains makes it the main story a meh for me.

Gameplay
It's miles better than Witcher 2, because this time it works... but that's all I can say... it works. But it's not enough to carry an 80 hour game for me. It's an "rpg" but doesn't have enough variety in it for some reason. The most you can do is, get a more flashy version of your magic spells, other than that most of things are just more numbers, that's it. Also I said it's better than witcher 2 but that's not a big compliment, combat still feels doesn't flow that well, because animations are too long, you still don't feel like you are in control entirely, like I would go as far as to say this game just loooooves to eat your inputs and that's just bad. Also Enemies are not interesting either, there is giant enemy type, ghost enemy type, flying enemy type, fast jumping type, 4 legged dog like type and that's it. Their numbers can look big but when the animations look the same but only with a different skin, it gets boring as well. So what that's result of this? Repetitive game. You feel like doing the same attacks to the same enemies again and again. There is not enough variation for anything for this long of a game unfortunately. It gets boring.

Side Content
I already talked about the side content a bit on the world part. Enemy camps, monster camps, Treasure hunts, monster caves, side quests, and also free skill giving statues to find and famous gwent card game as well. The most interesting part of them is side quests of course and some of the monster caves. Of course like all the other previous witcher games, this game have good sidequests as well. There is cliche kill that, kill this ones, also there is full of twist and depthful ones as well. Some of them is even more interesing than the entire main story for me and that's pretty nice. But for some reason people act like this was special to witcher 3? That was same for the previous games as well, even in witcher 1, there was a lot of sidequests that explore characters backstories, shows cruel part of the world, gives you desicion to shape someones future as well. So I didn't understand when people said this is what makes Witcher 3 special. Yeah it's good. Also gwent card game is pretty fun as well. But like I said in the world part unfortunately most of the content is copy paste enemy camps or boring treasure hunts. So I can't say it's a full slam dunk for it's favor.

Glitches
I thought, with the next gen update, I was gonna get the best witcher 3 experience... I didn't get that unfortunately. There is still a lot of glitches. The ones that I come across is, when riding horse with full speed and jumping from it near a locked door, I somehow get glitched and teleported past the door. Some "locked" doors don't have colitions and you can walk past them for some reason (especially Whoreson Junior's hideout for some reason have a lot of them), flying enemies or charging enemies keep stuck inside walls when they attack, horse keeps glitches it's legs when you try to progress through a downward slope and other shit I forgot.
But one of them was really anoyying and that was a side quest not counted glitch. For some reason, in one of the treasure hunt side quest, after I found the chest, opened it and collect everything, it didn't count but also removed the chest as well... Do you know what I had to do? Load a previous save... imagine my frustration.... I was pissed off! Not suprising to see Cyberpunk and it's glitches now actually. Especially if this is the "complete experience"

So yeah, I did not have much fun with this game, maybe if it had better pacing I would say this is a better Witcher 1 game, but unfortunately all the padding with overbloating it's content doesn't vibe for me. For this reason I give it 3/5. It's a meh for me. I didn't saw the masterpiece of the game everybody talked about unfortunately

Playing this game after 1 feels like complete subversion in a not so good way. Don't get me wrong I don't hate colorful and hopeful atmosphere. But feels like a parody of itself.

This game feels like a cliche bland anime. A Main character is super dumb when it comes to love... or any logical thing. A love triangle that does not improve the story in any form. Evil guys with the cliche evil laughs with dark clothing of course. Fanservicey hype moments. etc. etc. Is there a no worthwhile things in the story? There is actually, interestingly returning characters from the first game have still a good kinda writing with an actual effort put into it I felt like. Also our dragon is a complete ass to anyone other than us so it gives interesting moments. But that's just the small part of the story. Most of the story is a journey about destroying the magical seals with also lots of unneccesary misunderstandings that happen to prolong the story because characters are too stupid to communicate with each other like normal human beings. Like to the point of stupidity that our main character never tells his friends that bad guy tried to kill him, so they should be away from his bad guy group. Just like an anime that wants to do pointless conflicts to prolong it's episode time huh.

Gameplay
It works now like it supposed to be now! Dodge, guard, camera, combos, feels more smooth less clunky. But to be honest it's still the type of gameplay that too repetitive even with the multiple playable characters that have some advantages for different enemies. So it's not the flaming garbage like the last time at least but still feels meh.

There is also multiple endings like last time but I also heard it's just adds couple of minutes to the first ending of the game. But to get that you have to play the entire game again for some reason so no thanks.

If you are the kind of person that addicted to fanservicey anime moments you will have fun, but if you are the type of that have the expectation of experimental writing... you will not find this here. It's meh kinda bland that you will forget about the next day you wake up

Wars happen because the side that started the war believes they are the "righteous side". But is it that simple? Which side is right which side is wrong on whose perspective? These game reminds us that these kind of questions can't be taken lightly. Coins have two sides after all.

Also this game is slow burn type of game. You do chores, hunt animals, farm some plants etc. It works in it's favor in the first playthrough to show us the playable side is innocent as any other jrpg town. To the point you won't even realize this is Yoko Taro's another game in your first ending with how much it feels just an another jrpg that is about saving the town and their loved ones. Of course it is not that simple, it never is. To the point of your views about this game will change in every playthrough... After all What is the right choice to do at the brink of extinction?

This is a really interesting experience with lovable cast that make you feel conflicted about everything happening. Probably Yoko Taro's best side cast that he created to drive this point further. Emil, Kaine, Yonah, Devola, Popola... and it really really works.

Until the side content is introduced that is. Because it all goes to hell with boredom. My word of advice is just play the main content, do the first ending, then load your save again and play the second ending and then stop. Because Yoko Taro probably thought that giving jrpg like story wasn't enough he also had to give it's motonous side parts as well with super boring check list like side quests. Also this time I don't think it works in it's favor compared to the drakengard1. It doesn't support it's intented message it only takes away from it. Like... don't even get me started on fishing just throw it into the garbage bin. Also there is not just two but 4 endings but last two requires you to play the game again with weapon completion just only to add 10 minute of ending on a preivous one as a plus time(What the hell Mr. Yoko Taro....). Like I said only just experience the first two if you really value your time.

I am serious about this part. Because side content is so boring and meaningless that makes your views of this game get lowered more and more. It lowered mine because I did it all expecting interesting things... So don't say I did not warned.

Oh also combat is fine, it works enough and you get fun magic to use as well. I played the original version and it was nice, a bit mindless perhaps but getting interesting new magic in every progress felt rewarding to me. Balance goes out of the window the moment spears get introduced but I didn't get bored because of there is light puzzle dungeons and simple boss fights in the end of it. Combat maybe a bit on the forgettable side, but small light dungeon puzzles at least break the pace in a better way for me. If they focused on complex puzzle dungeons more maybe it would even go to the same level as majora's mask(there is even a mask reference in the game) for me... maybe... but that didn't happen of course. At least it's fine.