I generally feel pretty lukewarm about this game, but overall slightly positive. There are some frantic chase sequences and I like how often they force you out of hiding in order to progress, you end up feeling very exposed and uncomfortable even when there isn't an immediate threat. The creature with the fucked up proportions who's skin was like falling off or something in chapter 2 is pretty unsettling, but none of the later ones really stood out to me. Pacing is a little weird, each chapter gets shorter and shorter after the second one so it feels kinda anti-climactic and the story wasn't particularly gripping overall. Also maybe it's just me but vague depth perception combined with imprecise controls made some of the more precarious sections quite frustrating, but it didn't come up too often luckily. Puzzles were occasionally clever, but nothing mind blowing. Basically, it's fine.

Detention frustrates me to think about because a good, or even great game exists in here but it suffers from a few things, most jarringly a sense that the developers changed their mind about what kind of game they wanted to make halfway through.

1960s Taiwan during its period of martial law (aka White Terror) is the perfect setting for a horror game. At the start, the game uses this setting effectively, along with its more fantastical horror elements to instill a real sense of hopelessness and oppression. The puzzles themselves are serviceable, but mainly aim to bring the player from one story beat to the next with monsters in between that kept me paranoid as I walked between points. However, halfway through this all kind of falls away and we're left with a poorly told story about rebellion, betrayal, and regret that's tonally inconsistent with the first half and loses all of its tension.

The most consistent aspect of this game is its striking visuals, music and sound design. Although these aspects are a highlight, the visuals in particular are betrayed by the storytelling. There are so many times where the imagery was enough to let me get a sense for what was going on, but the game can't help itself and spells almost everything out for the player, and this is where most of my frustration comes from. The game seems to want to use metaphor and imagery to convey its messaging and story, but completely abandons it by the end.

Just as a final note that doesn't fit nicely into the rest of the review, the final scene with the counselor character is genuinely baffling and disgusting, what were they thinking???

jesus fucking christ i can't believe i played persona 5 twice there are so many better things i could've done with my time. i never want to see, hear, or think about anything related to this game ever again especially not the music, the music gives me war flashbacks i stg.

That aside, this and the original do hold a special place in my heart. The atmosphere of the Tokyo streets are so lively and just an absolute joy to walk through. I also love a lot of the characters. The confidant stories, as ridiculous or simplistic as some of them can be, are pretty effective (ignore the extremely inappropriate romances hahahahahaha!!!!!!). Plus the abilities you get from them help make combat more interesting. The combat is quite fun and satisfying, but unfortunately the game is too long for it to stay engaging, but at least the palaces are pretty creative and do a lot for the game. The story as a whole is a fucking disaster and I refuse to touch it with a 1000 foot pole, It's gonna give me a migraine. I just have so many conflicting feelings on this game why can't things just be fully good or fully bad, I cannot bare this inner turmoil any longer this game sucks I love it I hate it what were they thinking aAAaaAAAAAaaaaAAAaaAAAaaaaaaAAAAaaAAa

Very few games manage to capture the sense of scale, the sense of awe at the world around you as the first Xenoblade Chronicles. It just feels good to exist in this world with its gorgeous environments and roaming monsters, especially with that absolutely iconic ost in the background. The combat and character building systems are just deep enough to feel rewarding but don't go completely fucking overboard like 2 and 3. A fun, although trope filled, cast of characters and voice acting that I am fully sold on make this such an incredible adventure. Honestly not sure what the fuck was happening towards the end, the story gets kinda stupid but it doesn’t tarnish the overall experience that badly.

Without it's art Blasphemous doesn't really stand out at all. It has many clear influences from other games in and adjacent to the metroidvania genre but mechanically doesn't seem to have any sort of identity of its own. The combat feel fine I guess but the parry is too easy to use for how strong it is and even with all the abilities you can find it always feels like there's something missing. Unfortunately the level design also does not complement the combat well either making it extremely easy or sloppy and frustrating. The platforming is also just not that interesting and having instant death in a game like this is a baffling decision to say the least.

Despite all that I still think I might have been willing to finish it if it wasn't for a few other problems that are more serious in my opinion. First of all, It's weirdly linear for a game that is clearly trying to be exploratory and interconnected. Second of all, it does the annoying fantasy writing thing where all the dialogue is just exposition about a bunch of made up words and characters without any context for the player (but that the player character is supposed to understand). As a result the npcs feel totally lifeless as they have no other purpose or personality outside of this. The sum of these two problems ruins the atmosphere and leads to a world that feels devoid of purpose. I would say I'd like to see where it takes its primary theme of Catholic guilt but that just wasn't enough to sustain me. It is totally possible that the game improves later on but it simply failed to establish any sort of intrigue - mechanically, narratively, or otherwise.

Very surreal actually playing this game, I've been a fan of it pretty much since it came out from watching playthroughs on youtube and after playing it myself after all this time, my thoughts pretty much haven't changed. Now I do think some of the humor has worn off on me, but most of it still holds up and the music of course is absolutely fantastic. Super creative take on turn-based combat, love how each boss has a unique and surprising mechanic. The characters are wonderful shout out to lesbians and the story-
ok what the fuck am I, a user of the internet, doing reviewing Undertale in the year of our lord 2023 I feel like such a buffoon anyway yes love this game, pretty special to me