Generally a good sequel but also disappointing in several ways. While the narration of the action scenes still isn't up to snuff, S is far less reliant on fights in general and the ones that are there have a lot more visual flare to make them more exciting. S adds a lot of new characters and while they're all pretty fun in their own ways, only the select few who got their own routes got much time to shine. I enjoyed the new routes, particularly Kokoro's, but the routes in S typically spend too much time on H-scenes and not enough on building up an impactful story so I ended up preferring the first game. I also just generally prefer spending time with the Kazama family and they really took a backseat in this one. I appreciate them adding a route for Koyuki but making it a retcon of the past feels like a real cop-out. I realize it's a lot of complaining but the eccentric fun of Majikoi is still certainly present throughout the game so it was still a real fun time.

I love Arkanoid and I love brick breaking type games when they're done well, Dungeonoid is an interesting premise with some of the worst execution I've ever seen. Giving an Arkanoid type arcade game an RPG style twist could be done well, but you won't find that here, instead you'll find awful map designs, poor power-up balances and repetitive looping music that'll have you wanting to stop playing before you even finish the first zone.

I could only stand to play the game for an hour before I quit and I never want to touch it again. I played through about 10 levels and beat the first boss and that was enough for me because after awhile it stops being about breaking blocks and more about waiting for the ball to bounce in just the right spot to hit a switch or pick up a key item. It was less like playing a game and more like waiting to play a game and when you start waiting 5 minutes at a time just for the ball to reach the exit of the stage you know there's a problem and the level design is just very poorly thought out with too many gimmicks and not enough useful power-ups for the player to balance it out.

At least getting the platinum trophy is easy and doesn't even require you to beat the game, that's really the nicest thing I can say about Dungeonoid besides the idea for the game being cool, but a cool idea does not a good game make and this is just the epitome of shovelware. I only paid $2 for it, but that's still too much, I wouldn't play this game again even if it was free and I wouldn't recommend anyone else waste even an hour of their time on it either.

The short version is, that Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a good remake of a PS1 classic that includes a lot of helpful features and tools to make this a good way to experience the game for the first time. With updated graphics that are quite appealing in the HD Pixel art era that other remakes like Live A Live have been utilizing. There are a lot of interesting ideas that are explored in Star Ocean Second Story R, and it is something other RPGs could learn from.

The long version, is that the gameplay can suffer from being incredibly unbalanced due to the way that the IC system interacts with the combat system. The IC system offers interesting ways to have characters do out of combat actions that all interact with each other in very interesting ways that then help your characters get stronger. Leveling up alchemy gets you materials to then craft into accessories and blacksmith into armor and weapons when you have enough party members with high levels of crafting. Your writing skill allows characters to write books that help other characters to learn these IC skills faster, and publish specialty books that earn you money through the game at publication houses, and cooking gives you very good healing items with effects that can improve other stats. Beyond these are many more combinations that fit into this addictive system. However, the major problem is the combat system is also reliant on this, as there were large difficulty spikes which make it so that the game seems to want you to be investing large amounts of time into leveling these stats up when the game itself is incredibly short outside of the grinding. It is fluff to expand game time when the actual amount of content as far as the main story is short even if it can be fun fluff. The issue is it not being optional by the last dungeon and being required to actually stand a chance against the final boss, let alone the upgraded and enhanced final boss.

Characters were initially interesting, but in the latter half of the game they fall off and are weaker than PS1 contemporary characters, with some of the weakest female characters I can think of from that era. Rena while being a good character, suffers heavily from being an optional protagonist who is so reliant on her other optional lead Claude who is clearly written as the main lead of the story. So much so that when large emotional moments happen for Rena, they are often ignored in favor of Claude to give him more moments even on Rena's route when Rena arguably goes through much more traumatic things than him. It is very much ripe with the feeling that Claude is the main character, and Rena is just an optional character you can play as for a second play through if you really want to. The different paths also don't feel as distinct as I would have liked, with only minor differences between each route, which usually just results in Rena getting kidnapped and trying to escape vs. Claude rescuing her. The major difference being then in the PAs, the system by which small side stories appear for characters. On paper PAs are incredibly interesting, but they fail in the end due to a few limited factors. First, they are very short, and not significant moments for characters most of the time. Secondly, they are very congested, usually getting a lot at the very moment you unlock a new character, before becoming sparse and empty until the latter half of the game, where there are again very few of them. There could definitely be more of them. Finally, they also highlight how shallow the writing is for the women characters, with all of them being either boy crazy, hysterical, or clumsy in a cutesy way to the point where there were no women characters in the party that escaped unscathed. There are two NPC women that actually do anything to the plot that are not mothers, boy crazy, or something similar, and both nearly die. It is that dire. The men for their credit usually have more fun scenes and are more enjoyable to watch PAs of.

A lot of this is cut in favor of the various different endings of the game, which come in the form of different character pairings based on which characters in your party have the highest affinity like the Fire Emblem series. However, similar to the PAs, while there are 99 different endings like the game boasts, they are too short and feel very insignificant compared to the Fire Emblem endings that usually use paragraphs of text to convey things in a better manner that feels more conclusive. Many of the ones that I had gotten feel rather disconnected from the actual central ending which is the same. It might have been that I had just gotten some poorly written ones, but that 4 of the 99 that I had gotten were so rushed, short, and inconclusive that they left me feeling kind of hollow at the end is staggering, especially as I repeat how short the central scenario of the game ended up being.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R has very interesting and fun gameplay that for the time of the original release of the game was something that made it competitive with its contemporaries despite its relatively lower level of storytelling and characters. However, in the modern day with a remake of it, it just highlights all those flaws that other games have learned from since then.

"Show me the Champion of Light
I'll show you the Herald of Darkness"

How do you even review a game like Alan Wake II? This is a game that has been 13 years in the making. A game that many (including me) never thought we'd actually see in our lifetime. The fact it exists at all, let alone in its current state is a miracle in itself. However I ask this question for more reasons than just that. Yes, how do you even review a game like Alan Wake II because simply put there's absolutely nothing else like it in the medium of video games.

You can call Alan Wake II a postmodern detective murder mystery, an atmospheric psychological horror fever dream and a meta 4th wall shattering narrative with enough mind-bending twists, turns and revelations and layers upon layers of metaphors, meta commentary and cryptic symbolic messages to make even David Lynch, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Christopher Nolan proud. You can also clearly see influences and elements pulled from TV shows like Twin Peaks, True Detective and The Twilight Zone or movies like Inception, Se7ven, Hereditary, Midsommar and The VVitch, alongside games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill and even theater and rock opera, but even saying all this still doesn't do Alan Wake II justice because nothing else has ever blended all these various elements together in the same kind of way that Sam Lake and Remedy have done here and it's something you can't truly explain and just need to experience for yourself because that's what Alan Wake II is. An experience like no other.

Hell, nothing else even has the same kind of visual presentation or tells its story in the same way Alan Wake II does either. The closest thing to it would be Remedy's other hit game Control, but even then that game is so vastly different from what Alan Wake II accomplishes. We're talking in-engine graphics and cutscenes mixed with pre-rendered cutscenes mixed with tons of entirely live action sequences as well. With plenty of times when all 3 of these techniques are utilized and blended together all at once flawlessly to create a truly unique experience that only the medium of video games could ever provide.

If I could describe Alan Wake II in a single word, it would be "love" because you'd have to be blind to not see how much love went into this game at every turn while making it. The mind-blowing, revolutionary audio and visual presentation alone are proof of that, but that's far from the only thing Alan Wake II should be praised for, every single aspect of this game is mind-blowing in its own way. The budget for the game was £70 million which makes it one of the most expensive cultural products in Finnish history and it clearly shows in the sheer scope of the game and the insane and creative set-pieces, but don't let this massive budget fool you because Alan Wake II is also clearly a passion project in every sense of the word as well. A massive AAA game with the level of passion, soul and love put into it that an indie developer just starting out would put into their game.

Remedy Entertainment as a developer however aren't just starting out, no, they've been around for 20+ years and Alan Wake II is a game that truly shows this feeling like a culmination of everything Remedy have learned and done in those past 20+ years. You can clearly see elements and shades of all their previous games from Max Payne, the OG Alan Wake, Quantum Break and of course Control, but it all pales in comparison to Alan Wake II which is Sam Lake and Remedy's magnum opus and best game to date in every way possible. It's also the most Remedy game that ever Remedied and if you're a fan of the studio you'll understand what that means. Especially since this is the first Remedy game since the Remedy Connected Universe has been officially established and it has so much in-depth world-building and lore for die-hard fans who have played Remedy's other titles like Max Payne, Quantum Break and Control.

And while Alan Wake II is much more than a game, it IS still a game at its core and just like every other aspect of this experience, the gameplay is top notch as well. From the level design to the atmosphere and tension to the incredible boss fights and mind-boggling puzzles and exciting exploration which always rewards you for going off the beaten path with much needed supplies or valuable manuscript pages for extra added lore or manuscript fragments to upgrade your weapons, Alan Wake II is a master class on how to make a true blue survival horror game and feels like the closest thing we'll ever get to a modern Silent Hill 2.

Ambitious is a word that's thrown around a lot nowadays. Everyone wants to release the next game changing piece of media, but few ever do reach that level. If there's one single game that was released this year and truly deserves to be described as ambitious, it's Alan Wake II. Not only is Alan Wake II a technological marvel and the best looking game I've ever seen from a graphical standpoint, but Alan Wake II is more than a game, it's a truly one-of-a-kind multimedia EXPERIENCE that blends together cinema, literature, music and gaming all into one package in a way never before seen in this medium, but also in a way that could only ever be done in THIS medium.

Alan Wake II is simply a boundary pushing, genre defying, tour de force of creativity and innovation that would take decades of time to ever fully replicate in this same way again by anyone other than Sam Lake and Remedy and even though it took 13 years to release, the wait was more than worth it because this is the best possible version of the game we could've gotten and it was only made possible because of Remedy's own experiences making games like Quantum Break and Control leading up to Alan Wake II, which is not only a game, but an EXPERIENCE unlike any other and one that I know will stick with me for as long as I live.

"My honor... my dreams...they're yours now."

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII serves as a prequel to the events of the original Final Fantasy VII following the story of Zack Fair a rookie SOLDIER operative with a dream of becoming a hero and tasked with the mission to find the missing SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos with the help of his mentor Angeal Hewley. Zack also meets many other iconic Final Fantasy VII characters along his journey like Aerith, Cloud and Sephiroth among others and it really helps to give them all even more depth and development (Especially Sephiroth) than they already had in the OG Final Fantasy VII.

Crisis Core back on the PSP was already a great game, but Reunion is without a doubt the definitive version. Not only giving massive graphical updates using assets from Final Fantasy VII Remake, but also adding major quality of life improvements to the combat making it fast and more fluid and fixing the "Digital Mind Wave" slot machine mechanic so it's nowhere near as tedious as it was in the original and even including fully voiced dialogue. However there are some aspects of Crisis Core Reunion that still feel a bit outdated and PSP-like such as the smaller scale areas and reused assets for the (tedious) side missions (There's 300 of them by the way which is a bit excessive and it's not worth doing them all IMO)

To me most of the time prequels feel unnecessary, but Crisis Core is one of those rare exceptions which only help to add more depth and detail to the world and characters of Final Fantasy VII and Reunion truly blurs the line between remake and remaster in the best way possible only enhancing an already great experience with more fluid combat, fully voice acted dialogue and massive graphical updates among other things making Reunion the definitive way to experience this iconic PSP classic.

A masterpiece in every sense of the word, Larian have really outdone themselves with Baldur's Gate 3. Rooted firmly in DnD game systems and lore, it is a spectacular adventure from start to finish. The level of character expression through character progression/creation, dialogue choices, exploration, and combat is something that I haven't really encountered since well, Divinity Original Sin 2.

My playthrough was as a high-elf bard with a criminal background, and so as a result I ended up being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I could pass all persuasion/deception checks, a large pool of spells to utilize in and out of battle, and proficient with rapiers and crossbows as well. For your companions, each and every one of them has a compelling story arc (if they choose to stick around and you don't get them killed in battle). They may approve or disapprove of your actions throughout the game, but with all the variation of events there is high replay value even at ~100 hours in length.

This variation however can be hit or miss. While I have no doubt there are plenty of events I did not see throughout the game due to my choices (cool), there are some objectives that feel pretty obtuse. Either far out of the way, or requiring specific NPCs to talk to, needing to be done in a specific order, or just time sensitive. Some hidden stuff is all well and good, but some things almost feel like they require a guide to know how to do "properly". A fine line had to be walked for balancing long rests (which pass time in the world, but also restore all your character's health, spells, and trigger certain events).

Baldur's Gate 3 is a long adventure, but not a moment feels wasted. Each area is tightly designed and sprinkled with enough fast travel points and events where the player spends very little time just running around wasting time. Though the final act has its fair share of bugs, it is still a well crafted game that encompasses everything an RPG should be. The voice acting, the high-fantasy music, the atmosphere, the character and creature designs, the writing - BG3 is a treat that may just inspire me to give DnD yet another shot. In a year of plenty of tremendous video games, this is almost certainly going to be my game of the year.

"We've had times over the years when our chances were all-but zero. But we're here now, aren't we? We defied the odds and came through every time. Because we weren't alone. Because we chose to support one another. That strength is why we can always persevere. And humanity will continue to bolster that strength for generations to come"

I would like to preface this review by saying I first got into the Trails series back in 2020 and binged through every game from Sky FC to Cold Steel IV in the span of about 6 months. The series has been my fave video game series ever since and even 3 years later that love has yet to fade in the slightest. Trails Into Reverie is a bit of a special game for me being the first Trails game I actually had to wait for to be localized and released and I'll just say that 3 year wait was more than worth it because Reverie truly reminded me why I love this series enough to call it my favorite in the first place and after putting 100+ hours into it and finishing both the main story and all the side content I'm pretty content on calling Reverie both my fave Trails game and possibly just my fave game in general.

Trails Into Reverie is many things. It's both Trails of Cold Steel V and also Trails to Azure II and even on top of that it is its own new story which introduces many new characters and exciting concepts to the world of Zemuria, but most importantly Trails Into Reverie is the culmination of nearly 15 years worth of storytelling, a stunning love letter to the Trails series up to this point and an incredible finale for the Western Zemurian Arc as a whole while setting up the beginning of the Eastern Zemurian Arc starting with the Calvard Republic. There's simply nothing else in the medium of video games like the payoff that Reverie gives you after experiencing all 9 other games before it. Truly made the hundreds of hours I spent on the series worth it.

Trails as a series has always been one of the most ambitious across the entire medium of video games, most known for holding the record for telling the longest running interconnected story across 12 separate games and the span of (so far) 7 in-game years (And almost 20 real world years) and the series world renown masterclass, novel-esque world-building focusing on the sociopolitical issues of the massive continent of Zemuria which has multiple fleshed out countries featuring their own unique governments, militaries and political relationships and struggles. Zemuria has an impressively detailed history, including its own version of the real world industrial revolution, modern technological advances, its own religion and a version of the Vatican and so much more. Alongside all this there's a more mysterious, darker and occultic side of Zemurian history few are aware of involving secret societies, magical artifacts and ancient civilizations.

So when I say that Trails Into Reverie might very well be the most ambitious Trails game to date, you know how bold of a claim that is for a series as ambitious as this, but I promise you it is true. Trails Into Reverie is the first game in the series to tell not one, but three narratives across three individual story routes with each focusing on a different protagonist and featuring their own unique casts of characters, boss fights, locations and even music, but if that wasn't ambitious enough already after the prologue Reverie let's the player experience these three routes in any way of their choosing (Aside from certain points in the story that lock you into a specific route) this is all made possible by the cleverly titled "Trails to Walk" menu system that lets you instantaneously swap between all three routes at any given time.

All three narratives are quite diverse from one another in tone and themes and being able to swap between them at will really helps keep Reverie constantly fresh and very well paced (And Trails games are notorious for being quite slow burns) making this arguably the best paced and most exciting game in the whole series and a big part of that is thanks to it being the one with the most mystery right from the very first act all the way to the end. Who's this mysterious masked man C? What's up with this lifelike doll and why does she have amnesia? What is the "Reborn Imperial Liberation Front? What's going on with Rean and why does he still have inner turmoil? What does fate have in-store for Crossbell and the SSS? These and so many more questions will be running through your mind and the answers will most likely not be as simple as you think they are because all the twists and turns in the plot are easily the best the series has to offer as far as I'm concerned and even the finale is the best in the series as well. It's rare a game tries to pull something so grandiose off and actually manages to accomplish it without feeling rushed, but once again Reverie shows why its the best in the series hands down.

The routes by themselves are all fantastic. C's route and its themes of existentialism and learning to find a purpose in life was the biggest standout for me (Crazy how this game has over 50 characters and the new ones still manage to steal the show), but both Rean and Lloyd's routes truly help give satisfying conclusions to their character arcs as well. However what impresses me more is how all these individual complex narrative threads flawlessly weave and intersect with one another slowly becoming entangled at the core and what was once three separate narratives eventually becomes one singular narrative that comes full circle. It's like hyperlink cinema, but in game format and it's just as impressive.

Despite having three separate story paths Trails Into Reverie is a surprisingly linear game especially after coming off of the almost semi-open world Trails of Cold Steel IV, but I think it was for the best and only helps tighten the pacing. There's surprisingly very few side quests, but the game more than makes up for that with the True Reverie Corridor and all the side content it holds. The True Reverie Corridor is a sort of special mystical dimensional space where all our heroes can go and train by tackling a procedural generated dungeon to earn Phantasmal Shards which allow for the purchase of many special upgrades which can be transferred to their combat prowess in Zemuria. It is separated by Stratums and only the first 2 are mandatory to complete for the main narrative, everything else is side content that you could very well ignore (However I wouldn't recommend it though because of how much you'd miss out on)

In this dimensional space you can also participate in unique combat trials, unlock captivating side stories (If you've played Sky the 3rd, think of the Star/Moon Doors in Phantasma) which much like the Doors in Phantasma help to build the world even further with stories that complete certain character's arcs, show untold pasts, fill in the blanks to things that happened in between or before the main narrative of Reverie and some that might give hints to come about the future alongside some more fun filler slice-of-life events. Besides the side stories the TRC also lets us partake in plenty of mini-games from fishing to the CS card game Vantage Masters, the Puyo-Puyo like Pom-Party or a new Magical Girl themed Bullet Hell game, but that's not all because in the TRC you can also recruit special characters that don't appear in the main story just to use while dungeon crawling in the TRC by the means of a gacha system. By the end of the game you'll have over 50 characters to choose from and experiment making your dream parties, it is easy to spend hours upon hours in the TRC alone because there's such a wealth of optional content available, it's staggering honestly.

If you've played a Trails game you already know what to expect in the gameplay department, the combat is fundamentally the same from Cold Steel IV with a couple new mechanics and additions such as United Fronts which are basically upgraded Burst attacks that let your entire party even the reserve characters off screen do a group attack on an enemy, the Dis-Orders which were introduced in CS IV are back and more prominently used as well. Aside from that it's more of the same tactical/turn-based hybrid gameplay we know and love where we can move and position our characters on a grid, attack with special skills known as Crafts, use magic known as Arts, link up with team-mates for co-op attacks, boost our abilities with Orders and find the right combination of Quartz and Master Quartz to set in our Orbments and make the most game breaking, broken build possible. Simply put, Reverie is Trails' combat style perfected including every single miniscule detail that makes the combat in this series so enjoyable and introducing a spin or two of its own on the combat. Reverie having the largest cast of playable characters in the series (And possibly in all of J-RPGs as well) to date (Over 50 btw) gives so much room for diverse parties and builds to experiment with if that's your thing as well.

I'll also mention that despite Trails being a low budget series and Falcom in general being such a low budget company, Reverie is without a doubt their best looking game to date (Keep in mind, I haven't played Kuro yet) and there is one particular scene that was a sort of "test" for the new engine that Kuro apparently runs on and both the graphical and animation qualities have such a vast improvement over anything else Falcom have done to this point that it is crazy. However even the base game looks very impressive for such a low budget company and the animation quality has seen great improvements making the action scenes better than they've ever been, it definitely makes me excited for Kuro to experience the full power of the new engine though.

Another important thing I have to mention is the OST. What would a Trails game...No, scratch that, what would a Falcom game in general be without their music? A company that has always given music such an important role in their games that they have their own touring band that does live shows. Whenever a new Falcom game comes out it also comes with one hell of an album attached to it and I can promise you that Trails Into Reverie is no different. From its anime-esque opening theme "No End No World" which blends J-Pop, prog rock and jazz all together flawlessly all the way to the final boss theme "The Perfect Steel of Zero" and its powerful, bombastic and grandiose orchestral arrangements and choir vocals and that's just two out of eighty one tracks featured in this masterpiece of an album (Err I mean game, who am I kidding? I mean both) not even mentioning neoclassical guitar shredding furious boss battle themes like "Heavy Violent Match" or "Sword of Sword" and if that isn't enough for you, there's somber and melancholic piano pieces like "Lapis" or atmospheric violin laden tracks like "Hide and Seek with Myself" I could honestly write a review about how great the soundtrack itself is alone so I'll just cut it off here saying not only is the OST incredibly diverse and musically impressive, but every single track only helps to enhance the scene it is played in, every boss battle is more intense and exciting, every mystery feels more mysterious, every emotional moment more heart-wrenching. The OST itself is so intrinsicly linked to the game that I simply couldn't picture any other music alongside these scenes because it is the perfect companion.

Trails Into Reverie is Trails at its absolute best featuring all the strengths of the series and none of its weaknesses, providing not only the best writing (And best pacing) the series has to offer and an incredibly satisfying conclusion to a story that has been ongoing for the past 15 years, but also one of Falcom's best OSTs, some of the best turn-based gameplay of the past decade, Falcom's most impressive game from a technical perspective and over 100 hours of content including a lengthy main story and nearly just as much optional side content. Trails Into Reverie is simply put, no less than a true masterwork of an RPG and storytelling in general and one hell of a sendoff for some of my favorite characters of all time. If there was ever an "Endgame" of video games, Trails Into Reverie would be it, but as far as I'm concerned, Reverie is even better. However this isn't the end for Trails, but merely the beginning because as they say, where one trail ends another begins so onward to Calvard!

"We fight. We survive. We endure. We don't need a reason. We are imperfect creatures. When we stumble, we reach for a shoulder to lean on. When we fall, we stand back up. We see the horizon ever out of reach and still we march on...certain the answers lie just beyond it. Because that is our way."

Final Fantasy XVI is one of the most divisive games in the franchise to date, but is also one of the absolute best as well. A game that on the surface looks like it has almost nothing in common with Final Fantasy of old due to its "M" rating, graphic violence, Game of Thrones influenced dark fantasy setting and Devil May Cry styled action combat, but as you advance deeper into the game, peeling these layers away, you reach the heart of Final Fantasy XVI which is one of the purest Final Fantasy experiences in over 2 decades that in many ways captures the soul of the SNES era of Final Fantasy (Especially IV and VI) and feels like a massive love letter to the series roots while adding its own modern and mature flair to it as well.

Let's start with the narrative and while I can't go too in-depth because of spoilers, I'll just say there's a LOT here. FF XVI is arguably the most narrative driven and cinematic FF title yet (featuring over 20 hours of cut-scenes) and that says a lot when considering that narrative has been this series biggest strength for decades. XVI tells an epic, dark, mature and emotional tale of brotherhood and family bonds, of living up to and fulfilling a legacy, of betrayal and revenge, of love and loss and most importantly of the power of freewill and the insurmountable spirit of humanity and it's all drenched in philosophical, religious and sociopolitical commentary as well. One of the most thought-provoking games I've played in a good while and though many will consider the 3rd act lackluster, I personally love it because I'm the type who is just as big a fan of shounen anime as I am Game of Thrones styled dark fantasy. So I'll happily consider XVI's among one of the best narratives I've ever experienced while playing a video game.

The quality and scale of world-building in XVI is also not to be understated because it is insanely impressive. The world of Valisthea is so dense featuring two massive continents, one known as Ash to the east and one called Storm to the west. Valisthea has many nations and kingdoms with their own various cultures, histories, religious beliefs and governments and that isn't even mentioning all the fantastical elements of the world like the complex lore behind magick or the godlike beasts known as Eikons and the special people known as Dominants which are born with the power to host said Eikons or the ancient civilization known as the Fallen or the many secrets and mysteries this world has to uncover. One of the most detailed and immersive worlds I've experienced in years. Valisthea has so much more that there's even a loremaster character who's entire purpose is to keep track of all the lore of the world (which you can read key notes of at anytime). Hell, I would compare it to that of my fave video game series the Legend of Heroes: Trails series world of Zemuria and it's especially impressive FF XVI was able to achieve such a level of world-building with merely one game compared to Trails' 12 games.

And what would a compelling narrative and world be without equally compelling characters? Well, luckily XVI has one of the strongest casts in the series entire history from our protagonist Clive Rosfield who we watch slowly and subtly change, grow and develop as he goes on a life-changing journey that spans decades of his life. However Clive is far from the only incredible character because there's also the likes of the charming, roguish outlaw leader Cid to the leaders of various nations like prince Dion Lesage of the Holy Empire of Sanbreque or Barnabas Tharmr the king of Waloed. Even Clive's trusty wolf companion Torgal has amazing characterization. However I'd say the one character that felt much less developed was Clive's childhood friend Jill Warrick mostly due to her character arc ending much earlier in the game than everyone else's and her character stagnating a bit because of it. However even if Jill by herself is a bit lackluster, I adore every single interaction with Clive and Jill together.

I also have to mention another reason the cast of characters is so strong in my opinion is thanks to the incredible voice acting from both the main and supporting characters alike which all have such strong performances and truly breathe even more life into them. English was surprisingly the original language for the game and the one that the game was lip synced to as well and it shows because I think this game has some of the best voice acting performances both of legitimately any game I've ever played. Clive, Cid and Barnabas were the ones that stole every single scene they were in, but there wasn't a single week or lackluster voice to be found.

That's just some of the main cast too which isn't even mentioning the supporting cast like Byron, Mid, Gav or even the blacksmith Blackthorne, the shop keeper Charon, the physician Tarja and the tactician Vivian have so much realistic depth to the characters thanks to both interactions with them in the main story and completely optional side quests that help flesh their characters out even more.

Speaking of side quests XVI is the type of game that reminds why I am such a strong advocate for doing every single piece of side content and side quest that a game offers because the side quests in XVI add so much depth to both the world as a whole, but both the main and supporting characters revealing many details about their personalities, backstories and struggles which you would never learn otherwise. On top of that you can get valuable crafting materials to make better equipment and items to increase the capacity or potency of your potions. Even unlocking the ability to ride a Chocobo is tied to a side quest so while most side quests are typical "go here and fight x thing" or "go here and collect x item", the stories they tell and the rewards they offer are more than worth it.

So for the past 1000 words of this review I've just been going on about the story elements of this game and while I could easily do so for another 1000 words if I wanted to I figured it is time to talk about the gameplay now.

Combat of XVI can effectively be described as Devil May Cry V-lite which isn't a bad thing because even a more simplified version of the DMC V combat is still leagues beyond most action combat systems, but I would still call it the weakest part of the game. It's flashy, it's fast, it's fluid and most importantly it is fun and never gets boring. While Clive's basic sword combat is very limited with only a couple combos you can do the variation and diversity in the combat comes from all the different Eikon powers you slowly unlock (Nearly 40) and there's all kinds of combinations you can try with them since the game allows you the ability to refund any skill you purchase at any given time and you can have a total of 3 Eikons with 2 powers each equipped, even being able to master said powers and equip them to other Eikons besides the main Eikon they are originally attached to adding even more versatility and variety to the combat. The combat might not have the depth of DMC V, but it still kept me fully entertained for over 70 hours.

However as fun as the base combat system of XVI is, where the combat truly shines is in the Eikon fights. These fights have so much build-up behind them and there's only a handful of them across the whole game, but when they happen they're heavens shattering battles between two godlike titans and they're some of the most grandiose spectacles I've seen in any game ever basically being the equivalent to if something like Asura's Wrath or God of War III came out nowadays. These Eikon fights are more than just cut-scenes and QTEs as well. There is always a legitimate boss fight alongside the over-the-top cinematics and it's all so perfectly executed and somehow every single one of these fights and their set-pieces just manage to get even more insane being more grandiose and bigger spectacles than the last even when you think there's no way that could possibly happen, it somehow does. I would happily consider at least 3 of these fights among some of my all time favorite boss fights now.

As a matter of fact all the production values of FF XVI are just phenomenal from the crisp, beautiful graphics to the remarkable sound design just adds so much more to the sheer godlike scale of the game making all the environments that much more vibrant and detailed and the battles even more intense and epic. Speaking of the environments it's so nice to have legitimate towns with NPCs and shops back in Final Fantasy again.

Finally what would a Final Fantasy title be without its music? I've never played FF XIV so I had no real opinion on Masayoshi Soken until playing this game, but after experiencing his musical talents in XVI I'll say this man is a genius. XVI's music has so much variety to it which really enhances every single scene just as much as the visuals and voice acting does. Each individual Eikon fight has their own unique theme from bombastic choral music or heroic swashbuckling adventurous themes to industrial electronic music, there's plenty of calming ambient music as you're exploring the forests and caves of Valisathea alongside some more folky music in towns and somber piano music during more emotional scenes, among many other musical styles as well and plenty of nods to classic Final Fantasy music pieces including a bombastic chanting version of the iconic FF Fanfare when beating a tough battle which is perfectly composed to fit the setting. With the score of FF XVI Soken proved to me that he deserves to be heralded right up there with the greats of J-RPG composers like Uematsu, Sakuraba and Falcom Sound Team JDK.

I essentially just typed up an essay on why this game is a masterpiece however I won't pretend like it is flawless because I do have some (minor) problems with it, granted they're all very minor nitpicks that don't detract from the overall experience, but they do still exist and maybe they'll bother other people more than they bother me personally.

First and foremost the game is kind of a technical mess right now having trouble keeping stable frame rates and resolutions on PS5 even on performance mode. I'm far from a framerate guy and that usually doesn't bother me, but even I noticed it in certain areas. Thankfully it is mostly stable during combat though. The game is also apparently making PS5s overheat and shutdown especially during the Eikon boss fights, but I personally never had that experience (Remember to clean your PS5 regularly and you too won't have this problem)

Now maybe I'm just too old fashioned, but the itemization in XVI is just very limited. I miss when it was common in J-RPGs for you to find new equipment like weapons or armor in chests in dungeons and on the over-world because in Final Fantasy XVI (and many other modern games as well) you can only obtain new gear by crafting and 99% of the chests you find in the world just contain crafting materials. So the loop is basically "do main story mission, go back to hub area, unlock new crafting recipe and make new sword and armor, use said equipment for a few hours. Rinse and repeat" and there's really no other way to obtain new gear aside from a couple special side quests.

When all is said and done Final Fantasy XVI is truly an epic journey from start to finish in every sense of the word, excelling in every single possible element the game has to offer providing one of the best narratives I've ever experienced in a video game with an incredibly detailed and immersive world to learn about starring a rich cast of well written and realistic characters in no small part thanks to its incredible side quests and masterclass voice acting performances. All topped off with an enjoyable combat system and mind-blowing boss fights which is all only enhanced thanks to the truly next-gen visuals, sound and production values overall alongside a masterfully composed OST too. Some people say XVI isn't a true Final Fantasy and to that I will just say that Final Fantasy XVI reminded me what a mainline Final Fantasy at its best has always been about. A mind-blowing, generation defining experience that will stick with you for life.

The TL;DR of it is, the game is a masterpiece and my new fave in the series surpassing even Ys VIII.

Now for my full detailed review.

Story: Ys VIII laid the groundwork for a more story driven Ys and Monstrum Nox just amplified it by 11. This is the most detailed and narrative driven Ys game to date and it's a fantastic one at that. It has a much darker, oppressive and mature tone than any other Ys game and it works incredibly well with the setting.

The basic premise is Adol and Dogi arrive in the prison city of Balduq, Adol immediately gets detained for suspicious activity due to his past adventures, Adol escapes the prison and on his way out he meets a mysterious woman name Aprilis who shoots him with a magical bullet turning him into a Monstrum. A cursed superhuman being with paranormal powers who is bound to fight demons in a parallel dimension called the Grimwald Nox, oh and they can't leave the city. So now Adol must break his curse to escape the city and be able to set off on his next adventure.

The story honestly blew me away in this game. I see people say it's inferior to VIII, but while Ys VIII had a solid story it wasn't the story that made that game incredible, it was that feeling of adventure. Ys IX doesn't have as much of that feeling because the whole point of the game is Adol is trapped from going on his next big adventure, he has to break this curse so he can be free to go on another adventure basically, but what it lacks in that tone and feeling it makes up for with a much more personal story with some incredible plot-twists and mysteries to unravel and the underlying themes of self-discovery and embracing the future while not letting your past define you felt more like something you'd see explored in the Persona or Trails series than it did Ys, but it was executed incredibly well and told a story just as captivating, emotional and memorable as those series are known for.

World-building: It's no secret Falcom are masters of world-building and Ys IX proves that once again. All throughout my playthrough I never got tired of learning about the massive history of Balduq. Between the legends of the ancient Hundred Years War and Saint Rosvita, the Nors mythology and gods (Even if it is just basically Norse mythology lol) to the political struggles of the Romun Empire or something as simple as the business practices of the Pendleton Trading Company, the city of Balduq always felt lively and realistic and easy to be immersed in. Another thing to note is the many mentions and references of Adol's previous adventures by various characters really enhances enjoyment if you've witnessed those older games for yourself.

Characters: I loved every single character in this game. From all 6 major party members to every single NPC that joins as a collaborator for your home base at the Dandelion Bar. They were all fantastically written, with so much depth, detail and development that when I finished the game and played the epilogue saying my goodbyes to every one made me cry because how much I came to love everyone. Even minor NPCs you talk to around the world like Jeannette and Reno have so much personality I know I'll fondly look back on my memories of the people I met in Balduq for years to come. I also have to mention I love the formula of the first 6 chapters being dedicated to learning all about a character of the main party, while slowly unravelling the greater mystery at hand as well.

Combat: This is what Ys has always been known for and Ys IX, simply put, has the best and most fluid combat in the series yet. It takes the same system Ys VIII had with the 3 character party member swapping system, each character having their own attack type of slash, strike or pierce due to different enemies being weak to different types and learning new skills as you level up to assign to various button combinations and execute combos, but polishes and refines to absolute perfection. Also bringing back the Boost gauge from the old Ys games like Origin/Felghana was a really nice touch.

Side Note: Raid battles from Ys VIII are also back, but this time their entire purpose ties into the actual plotline of the game and work much better for it.

Level Design/Exploration: It takes some real balls to have your game take place in 90% one area and it takes even more to actually be able to pull it off. Ys IX most definitely pulls it off. The prison city of Balduq and the outskirts surrounding it are both packed to the brim with secret areas and collectibles to find by utilizing all of the Monstrum's Gift abilities like a wall run, a glide or grapple hook which made the movement and exploration of Ys IX some of the most enjoyable and satisfying of any game I've ever played. All the dungeons were very well designed and fun to explore as well. Yes the visual representation is much more subdued compared to VIII or most other Ys games, but I really couldn't picture this story being told any other way, it wouldn't have kept the same kind of oppressive and claustrophobic tone if you enjoyed being imprisoned in the city because it looks beautiful, not to mention I think the grey, dark and dreary color scheme and gothic scenery helps to contrast the vibrantly colorful and almost visual-kei looking designs of the Monstrums and make them stick out that much more.

Bosses: All the bosses were excellently designed with a lot of later bosses even implementing the use of the various Monstrum gifts in battle in clever ways. The final boss was one of the most epic I've fought in both the whole Ys series and just any video game in general.

Music: Ys is known for having OSTs that are equally as amazing and heart racing as it's fast paced gameplay and Monstrum Nox continues this trend. Sure there's some more variety than usual with more orchestral tracks and melancholic piano pieces for mood setting, but the intense, shreddy neo-classical metal tracks are just as prevalent and you'll hear not only some jaw dropping guitar work, but lots of baroque instruments like harpsichord as well which fit perfectly with the gothic aesthetics.

All in all Ys IX: Monstrum Nox was everything I could've ever wanted and more. Taking all the best things Ys VIII laid the groundwork for and amplifying them to 11, adding an even greater emphasis on story, world-building and character development while staying true to the series lightning fast gameplay and infectiously catchy music along with incredible metroidvania-like exploration makes Ys IX not only the strongest entry in the Ys series to me, but an instant classic, an all time favorite and even a strong contender for Game of the Year, despite the Year just starting. The time I spent in the prison city of Balduq with Adol and friends is not something I'll be forgetting any time soon and I'm already greatly anticipating Adol's next big adventure.

So in Atomic Heart you play as a sarcastic asshole who is constantly spouting off Duke Nukem style action hero one-liners while bantering back and forth with his talking glove that let's him telekinetically move objects and use elemental powers?

Bruh, this shit is just Forspoken for Men™

With that said. I honestly don't mind P3's personality or the one-liners that much. I actually like P3 and he gives off those 80s/90s action hero vibes well, it doesn't feel nearly as Marvel-y or Netflix teen drama as Forspoken and he's pretty entertaining and funny at times, but holy shit the bantering and dialogue is just NON-STOP and it is TOO much at times to where it just becomes annoying.

I was honestly relatively excited for this game, but after about 9 hours of playing the game it just feels like a boring slog to me and I don't want to suffer through it anymore. My time is too valuable to waste playing things I'm just not having fun with at this point in my life.

The combat itself is very Eurojank (And not in a good way), the enemies are overly bulletspongey and the story just isn't interesting to me. The world is pretty weird and unique, I'll give it that, but when enemies constantly re-spawn thanks to the awful detection and alert system, it never gives you any time to truly appreciate or explore your surroundings and the game would've been so much better if it was completely linear and didn't have a tacked on open world. The game has potential, but you can certainly tell it was the first game made by this developer because Atomic Heart is a game with an identity crisis, it doesn't know whether it wants to be a Bioshick style immersive sim or a DOOM style shooter and so many gameplay and design choices are just so weird and contradict others so it just isn't that fun to play for me and at the end of the day all I want from a game is something that is fun.

Atomic Heart is a game I wanted to like and a game I wish I liked, but I just don't and I don't care enough to keep trying. You're better off just playing Prey (2017), Bioshock or DOOM Eternal.

I am never touching this game, not because of the controversy surrounding it, but simply because I watched a friend play through most of it and it looks like one of the most bland, soulless and casualized open-world "RPG" experiences since fucking Skyrim and I know it'll be a waste of money and I'll hate it.

Slap one of the biggest names in fiction on something like Skyrim and it's just guaranteed to be a hit with the most casual, entry level gamers so no wonder it's selling like crazy, this wasn't made for people who actually enjoy gaming. It exudes nearly every trope in modern gaming that is simply popular because people who have never played a game before in their lives eat that shit up, bland open world, checklist collectathon, MMO elements like glam and gear level, the most barebone RPG elements "choices matter!", ffs you don't even get experience for fighting enemies, just from completing "challenges" Excuse me for coming across as a gatekeeper, but this is WHY RPGs weren't meant to be made for everyone. RPGs have always been meant for the most hardcore fantasy nerds since the earliest days of D&D so making it appeal to the casual market might make a best selling game due to appealing to more people, but it will also alienate your core demographic and make the final product just come off as corporate and soulless.

Also if that isn't bad enough the combat in this game is just as shallow as everything else, no matter what spells you use or what enemy you fight every encounter ends up feeling the same, there's no depth at all and you will get insanely bored of it because it just becomes repetitive after the initial awe wears off.

Legit the only redeeming quality of the game is that it captures the lore and setting of the Wizarding World™ very well and I'm sure for hardcore HP fans who aren't big gamers that'll be enough for them to think the game is amazing, but for the rest of us? There's really just nothing here you haven't seen done before over the past decade of gaming.