Rising Tide is 100% done with all side quests completed and Katios Gate is cleared. I could have done better with Katios Gate but it's really challenging for a few fights even with the cheesy "nuke" build I made for the sake of completion.

Fantastic send-off to FFXVI since the DLC really enforces why FFXVI is such a fantastic game between the dense world-building, spectacular fights, and the undying pure human will to create a better tomorrow for the people who are suffering.

This looks like the end of FFXVI as far as additional content but I'm very happy the two expansion packs exist to expand one of my favorite games organically. Sad that Clive's journey is coming to an end but I'm glad I was a part of every moment of it.

When I heard Majikoi had obtained several sequels beyond the original, the next order of business was to play Majikoi S. Returning to Kawakami City and revisiting the Kazama family, Majikoi S serves more of an expansion to the original game rather than a continuation.

There are routes that take place after the ending of the five main routes and the Agave route for the original game. However, The main focus of S is on the brand-new characters that further add insight into the Kuki Corporation and introduce a new rival school known as Tenshin Academy. As well as characters from the original game that have not gotten a route have received one in S While the expansion sounds exciting and some of it is well executed, there is also quite a lot of content in S I less than enjoyed.

Majikoi S plays the same as the original game but with a few improvements. Since Majikoi S is fully voiced (just like the original game if you patched it), the addition of a voice timer to let you know when a character has finished speaking is greatly appreciated. Especially since there are times from the original when I have proceeded to the next line before the character is finished talking because I thought they were done talking (it can be a bit hard to tell at times since the voices are only in JP).

New to Majikoi S are short animated clips of action scenes that occur during fights in the game. Considering the nature of Majikoi and its focus on martial arts and combat, these short clips elevate the fights to be more engaging and entertaining to experience rather than just solely using text, voice, sound effects, and still images to depict these scenes.

Also, the route selection is much more straightforward this time, since you use a timeline to select which route to start, rather than spending X amount of time with a character after the prologue in the original game. From there, only the choices you can select can impact the game. While some choices will just alter the dialogue for the next few lines, others will impact what route you will proceed to. And Majikoi S rather has quite some endings that can be very difficult to get without using a guide.

At the end of the common route (which is 2nd-year 1st Semester + Future without a Relationship), the player character, Yamato Naeo, is presented with four “heroines” to pursue their routes. Tsubame Matsunaga, Margit Eberbach, Kokoro Fushikawa and Monshiro Kuki. Tatsuko Itagaki is also considered a “heroine” in S but her route must be accessed in the Agave After route. From what I have noticed, out of these options only Tsubame and Monshiro’s routes cover the bulk of the new S content while the rest of the routes are fairly self-contained to the heroine herself.

I was suggested to start with Tsubame’s route first since it was the route that further introduced the most amount of new characters. And for the most part that was true thanks to the tournament that takes place during her route as well as her need to advertise her natto brand (which means naturally encountering a bunch of characters). Maybe because I love it when girls are older than me or I just love the whole Onee-san trope but I ended up loving Tsubame’s route a lot and she ended up being my favorite character in the game, even if I can understand why some would dislike her at the end. Her route is split into two sub-routes. One route when Yamato “takes the lead” and another when Tsubame “takes the lead”.

The next route I have done is Monshiro’s route. While her route is considerably slower and less action-packed than the previous routes in Majikoi, Monshiro’s route gives the player plenty of insight into how the Kuki company is operated and the employees of the company. Not to mention as far as character writing and development, Monshiro is the strongest route for that in S. After all it’s just really hate to not like Monshiro, she is just really precious and I have claimed her as my “daughter”. Monshiro’s route can have various endings but the “Future with Monshiro” ending is the main ending for her and will unlock her “after” routes.

Margit was the next route I have completed and frankly, it’s rather disappointing. While this route made me enjoy Margit more as a character compared to the original game, I did not like it was so sex heavy with several explicit scenes. To the point, I think half of her route was just sex. It's just a bummer that this is how the game decided to treat Margit when she’s one of the more interesting characters in the games.

Kokoro was next, and while her route hardly focused on any of the new content, it was still a fairly enjoyable route as you get to learn more about Kokoro that was never revealed in the original game. I found her just very annoying and arrogant before, but her route made me see Kokoro in a new light. Now I just can’t help but laugh at her every time she fails at something and cries about it since it’s so comedic and amusing to me. There is a handful of sex scenes but not to the point I thought the sex was overwhelming (although I was quite disgusted with the end of one of them).

Then you have Tatsuko’s route, which began on the Agave After route as well as the after routes for the original’s game five heroines. These routes will assume you have played the original game since the after routes rather work as extended epilogues of the events that took place in the original game. There isn’t much to say since their main plotline is completed. You just go on romantic dates with the chosen girl and engage in plenty of sexual acts with them. Which for me, range from me enjoying them to absolutely loathing them.

Majikoi S is undeniably very sex-heavy in general and because of that, it is important to note that all of the involved characters are 18 and over. In fact, I have discovered the word “nukige”. A term I found out because of this game that means it explicitly focuses on the graphic sex scenes, and by that I mean it’s porn. I rather not get into details since I want to keep this review as clean as possible. But I thought they have overdone it with the porn. The original game had 20 and they are all removed if you play the Steam version while S had nearly 50 porn scenes.

Not to mention they are all very long and unrealistically dragged out. I was uncomfortable seeing a handful of sex acts (for reasons I rather avoid mentioning to not make things problematic) but for the most part, I just ultimately got bored of nearly all of them (I will admit I enjoyed two of them though) since they’re all written the same way and quite frankly, I get very impatient with sex scenes. So in the end I ended up turbo-skipping over all of the dialogue.

However, my biggest complaint is you have to endure much of the porn just to unlock the childhood route. To unlock it, you must complete all 5 routes of the newly added heroines for S as well as all of the after routes of the heroines from the original game. I think that only completing Tsubame and Monshiro’s route should be the requirement to unlock the childhood route considering they are directly tied into the new S content while the rest was fairly irrelevant to the new content. So enduring 8 sex-heavy routes just to unlock what I consider to be the best route in the game is heinous and what I consider the biggest fault of the game.

Once you do unlock the childhood route, which will lead into the Koyuki’s route since Koyuki Sakakibara is considered to be the “secret” 6th heroine for S. The childhood route is easily the most epic, action-packed, and exciting route in the game since it’s such a love letter to classic battle shounen series such as Dragon Ball and Bleach and even take influences from Star Wars. As someone who grew up on those series, it was just nonstop joy from beginning to end thanks to the tight pacing despite how huge the Koyuki route is in scale.

However, I thought any romance for Koyuki was forceful and shoehorned due to the lack of time you spend with her. If the Koyuki route was named something else (I think it should be called the Bushido Plan route instead), then I would have no major issues with it. However, considering that the route is named after Koyuki and considering there’s a huge lack of focus for her. The naming convention is rather confusing and jarring.

Majikoi S in the end is a severable sequel with new improvements to make enjoying the visual novel easier and the new characters are overall great and help expand the world of Majikoi. The porn is frankly overwhelming, does overstay its welcome though and I dislike a handful of them. And due to a lack of an option to skip or censor those games, it makes Majikoi S very difficult to recommend even if someone loved the original game. However, if you can overlook the high amounts of porn, then Majikoi S is a treat for anyone that wants more adventures with the Kazama family and the people that surround Yamato Naoe.

Played 12 hours of Tactics Orge before the start of the new years. It's not bad but due to a couple reasons I'm gonna shelve it for now.

From an historical perspective, it's nice to see where Final Fantasy Tactics and Triangle Strategy got its inspiration. But my main thing is just how slow the battles are, even on high spreed mode. Idk, it just feel like it takes forever to take down an enemy. Especially since there's an "union level", so an unit can't go pass the union level until it's raised after a couple main story battles. I get this exist so you won't have anyone overleveled and rely less on "tactics". But I kinda wish the union level didn't exist if enemy gonna be huge health sponges. At least the AI mode is nice if you wanna grind up units on training maps.

Story is fine, it's nothing wow (maybe because the stories of FFT and TS spoiled me) but it's serviceable enough for a tactics game, especially for its age. I like how you can make choices to shape up the story and having certain characters you have recruited to have extra lines during battles is nice. It was the main reason why I kept playing despite the dragged out battles.

There's also an another good reason why I'm shelving the game but that's something I really can't really explain, at least not in the public (let just say it isn't just about me for this reason). I am aware of the age of Tactics Orge and even the remake is quite old at this point. But I'm just at the stage when there's just so many games to play, I don't really have the time to just settle for "okay". I might return to it one day since deep down, I do enjoy it enough to keep playing. But right now, there are just bigger priorities than Tactics Orge.

Over the weekend I played the free DLC for God of War Ragnarok which is the Valhalla mode. Finally, I went in with no expectations other than it's just more God of War for free with a roguelike mode (that I was curious how that would work with the gameplay). Still, I left with a fantastic conclusion to Kratos' journey and growth as a character.

Valhalla isn't very narrative-heavy in terms of plot. The overall story is just Kratos coming to terms with who he was as a person back in Greece compared to who he is now and each "run" he does in Valhalla is Kratos facing different aspects of his past and how he views his past self isn't as black and white as he thinks it is.

Valhalla being a roguelike works wonderfully for the introspective journey Kratos takes in Valhalla. Gameplay-wise, while Kratos is in Valhalla, he can unlock temporary perks, weapon enchantments, stats, HP and rage recovery, etc to make a "run" easier. Upon death, Kratos is sent back to the shore and must restart the run until he completes a run after battling randomized enemies and bosses across all the areas seen in the base game.

A huge emphasis on Valhalla is that Kratos is always making progress towards "mastery" regardless of whether the run is successful or not. Since at the shore, you can make permanent stat and Valhalla upgrades Kratos can have those at the start of every run thanks to mastery seals and later on spirit seals he gets to keep to use on those upgrades.

However, what really impressed me was the self-reflection Kratos was doing. As someone that been into the God of War series for over a decade now and played every game in the series, it's rather very satisfying to see Kratos' evolution from an angry vengeful violent person to someone who only wants to fight to protect who he cares for and to freed others from tyrant gods.

There are a lot of references from past God of War games that just make Valhalla more satisfying to play if you have been following Kratos over the years. And not only Kratos reflects on the major events that happen in the first three mainline games. But also he takes a look back on his actions in the lesser-known God of War games such as Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta, and Ascension.

Overall, as one of the biggest unexpected surprises that have appeared towards the end of the year, God of War Valhalla stands tall as one of the finest pieces of gaming this year. By serving as an extended complimentary epilogue to the already masterful Ragnarok and finally giving the closure Kratos deserves as a character. Considering Valhalla is completely free of charge, if you have completed Ragnarok, then I can't recommend it enough to play the DLC ASAP.

It's definitely more of a post-game dungeon deal with challenging bosses since the story for this DLC is basically a very well-elaborated excuse to have a challenging dungeon at the endgame. But it was really nice to revisit FFXVI's combat and dungeon crawling even if it's not my absolutely favorite part of the game.

Me personally, I thought the dungeon was too FFXIV-ish. It definitely reminded me of how dungeons and raids in that game work because of the challenge and how a lot of the bosses love AOE attacks. But I thought the whole high techno setting was just very out of place??? Me personally, I think "Omega" in FF in general sticks out like a sore thumb but it's especially apparent in FFXVI.

Overall while the DLC doesn't have any of the highs of the base game off FFXVI, it's a short and sweet time with its gameplay if you want more FFXVI and pretty much did everything you could in the base game or looking for a greater challenge.

"The Hero Turns To Look Inside, Is Destroyed By What He Sees, And Is Redeemed."

Finished Alan Wake 2 last night and oh my, I absolutely get the praise for Alan Wake 2 now. It's an experience like no other game and not only does it greatly improve from the first game in every single aspect, but this is easily Redemy Entertainment's magnum opus with its unique multimedia method of storytelling and immersion.

The graphics are just astonishing, especially with how carefully Redemy has been crafting thier usage of lighting to the point there are many scenes when you could easily mistake the game for live-action. The audio design is one of the best I have experienced and it's incredibly immersive to hear sounds from all directions and angels from pouring rain, ringing phones, a conversation between people, and eerie monstrous sounds. From an aesthetic viewpoint, Alan Wake 2 does an excellent job of sending the message that this is a survival horror story.

Speaking of survival horror, Alan Wake 2 makes a drastic change in gameplay from the first game. No longer an action-adventure game shooting down dozens of Taken and dealing with frustrating combat sections. The gameplay emphasizes less action and more on slowly walking through nerve-wracking uncertainly.

While the survival horror combat itself is nothing groundbreaking, what helps make Alan Wake 2 stand out is how the duel protagonists, the titular character himself Alan Wake, and FBI agent Saga Anderson, solve their obstacles to resolve the issue at hand.

With Saga's mind place to help put together pieces she finds throughout the game to solve the surrounding mysteries and interrogate suspects. As well as Alan's plot board changes the surrounding environment around him as if he's rewriting "plot elements" for a story. It's a fresh and creative layer to prevent the gameplay from ever being stale.

The shining gem of Alan Wake 2 is the story and narrative and while it's very difficult to talk about its story without going into spoilers and details. What I can say is it masterfully presents its story like no other game I've played.

You have live-action segments of a short film, an operatic rock musical, video autobiographies, commercials, etc. As well as songs that play during and at the end of each chapter and scattered pages of incomplete manuscripts, all complimentary to the spiraling complex narrative that explores the psychological descent of the duel protagonists.

While each unique segment of Alan Wake 2 does sound disjointed and nonsensical on paper, it all comes together flawlessly in a meta manner of speaking to tell a story about a story and how these characters are trapped in a horror story coming to life.

Not to mention, the worldbuilding and easter eggs that Remedy have set up with thier previous games Quantum Break and Control help sell the overall dark surrealism and atmosphere that extends beyond the main focus and scope of Alan Wake 2. So it's very rewarding to play Redemy's previous games to appreciate these finer details that would be harder to pick up.

Truthfully, Alan Wake 2 is a near-flawless game. While I do think some of the enemies are a bit too health spongey and the checkpoint system could be more forgiving, those are just nothing more but minor nitpicks. It's otherwise masterfully executed in game design, narrative, and presentation with its creative multimedia approach.

I'm not a huge horror fan so I can't say with confidence it's one of the greatest horror stories of all time. But what I can say is it's a hallmark of visual and audio entertainment and sets a new standard of story presentation and game design. As far as I know, Alan Wake 2 is easily one of the greatest games of all time and that is something I do not say lightly.

Finished Super Mario RPG at 15 hours. It was way shorter than I thought even for SNES RPG standards but also after playing a bunch of complex and deep RPGs lately, something so simple, fun, and lighthearted as Super Mario RPG was such a refreshing change of pace. This was a game I wanted to play for years but I never got around to it, so I'm going into the game as a newcomer.

The overall story is quite simple. it's just Mario with friends embarking on a journey to find the seven stars to restore the Star Road that grants wishes and defeats Smithy who has taken over Boswer's Keep to start an invasion with weapons. While the grand scheme of things is your run-of-the-mill Mario adventure, it's the whole journey to find the seven stars that are the whole highlight of the adventure.

I honestly found the game much more enjoyable than expected because it just doesn't take itself seriously at all. Throughout the game, Super Mario RPG is filled with silly slapstick humor, over-the-top exaggerations, and villains with pretty selfish but goofy motivations. Such as Booster kidnapping and wanting to marry Peach for whatever reason. And he isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the shed, so his shortcomings were entertaining to watch, to say the least.

Super Mario RPG is just a game filled with so much fun, color, and charm, from the various settings and characters featured in the Mario series to the soundtrack composed by Yoko Shimomura to compliment the mood. However, what gives the game its identity is the fusion between the turn-based combat and the platforming, puzzling, and minigames known in Mario during exploration.

Minigames were fairly common in RPGs for its time period but Super Mario RPG uses its strengths from the series' history to create brief challenges for Mario to overcome such as navigating a mine tunnel with controls similar to Mario Kart or hopping over barrels and avoiding enemies that pay homage to its Donkey Kong origins. Personally, I wasn't a fan of the platforming at all, I just find the controls too slippy and it doesn't work as well because of the isometric perspective. But considering the original game serves as the bridge between 2D and 3D Mario, perhaps I could be a bit forgiving.

However, for much of the game, the gameplay lies within the turn-based combat every time you encounter an enemy.
Super Mario RPG takes much of the RPG elements from known Square RPGs from the SNES era such as Final Fantasy IV-VI and Chrono Trigger. Attacks, spells, and item management are all present. But what is unique in Super Mario RPG is the timing-based input for attacks and special abilities. If the input is timed correctly, the potency of the attack or special ability will increase. It's such a kinetic mechanic that it's single-handedly the one thing that prevents the otherwise very easy and simple combat from being stale and boring.

Overall, I don't have many complaints about Super Mario RPG. Besides the iffy platforming and while much of the game's narrative has aged wonderfully compared to its contemporaries thanks to having a simple approach to the story. There are still minor gaps in the story that I have noticed that were unexplained and Geno in particular was oddly silent compared to the other playable characters (I don't know if he is written that way on purpose or not).

Otherwise, it's a game filled with so much color and charm and it does not overstay its welcome at all. Mario is usually at its best when it just wants to show a player a fun and good time without taking a long time to do so and Super Mario RPG does that very well. I understand why this game is very belove

I spent over 200 hours between my tav and durge playthroughs...yea I have no idea how I am supposed to rate and review this game.

For starters, even with two fully completed playthroughs, I only feel like I've seen 70% of the game's content at best and honestly I don't feel confident I can write about a game and I haven't even seen everything. Maybe it's imposter symptom but compared to the dude that doing a 100% review of BG3, I just don't feel like I'm up for the task to do it right.

Also honestly, a part of me wants to give it a 10/10 and hail it as one of the greatest games that I've played. This is exactly what I wanted in an RPG. Various classes (that you can multiclass with) and races to choose from, tons of excellent dialogue with NPCs, so many story choices that dramatically impact yourself, your companions, the world, and the main story, and how those variations masterfully interweave with each other. The storylines of my two playthroughs are night and day because of how much you can differentiate a playthrough. As far as executing a freeform adventurous concept that only exists in TTRPGs, BG3 is the game that comes the closest to it and it does it extremely well.

But also...I think a 10/10 is honestly a bit too high and deep down I feel like it's perhaps a 9/10 game. After all, I just have so many frustrations with the combat (especially during my first playthrough) that can feel cheap at times, with bugs ranging from random objects floating during cutscenes (which is funny) to money you put in your inventory disappearing to quests just straight up not working at all. Not to mention I can't help but feel like there is still a sense of incompleteness with the endings and some of the companions that can join your party. Plus...I think the dice just really hates me and my luck at times. BG3 does so well but I just had so many tiny irritating issues during my experience, that idk if I can just ignore all of that and still give it a 10/10

Regardless, the game is legitimately amazing at least, and from my point of view, it took what Dragon Age Origins (a game that helped me get into RPGs) set out to do almost 15 years ago and amplified it 10x more. In any case, the game earns its praise at the very least and it's going to be a huge influence on the progression of RPGs for future games.

Crisis Core is a game I knew about many years back when it was on the PSP. However, I had no chance to play it since Crisis Core was physical only with the UMD and I had a PSP Go, which if anyone remembers, it's digital only. So I ultimately missed out on Crisis Core...until Reunion was released with brand new graphics and new quality-of-life improvements while retaining the same story and gameplay of the original.

Never playing the original, I have no frame of reference for comparison. So I will be treating Reunion as its own seperate game. First of all, this has to be one of the highest-effort remasters I've played. Although the graphics aren't as high-end and detailed compared to Final Fantasy VII Remake, the difference is still night and day despite keeping all of the original animations. Not to mention a newly rerecorded soundtrack considering both original songs for Crisis Core as well as remixes of some of the iconic scores from the original Final Fantasy VII.

Gameplay is action-based RPG as players assume control of SOLDIER Zack Fair, although it may seem simple at first, granted there is only a single button for attacking, the true meat of Crisis Code's gameplay is the Digital Mind Wave and Materia Fusion.

The Digital Mind Wave is a nonstop spinning RNG-based mechanic that grants Zack different status buffs, limit breaks, and even summons based on what three-digit number is chosen alongside a picture of the character or summon. You can even level up by hitting the three digits "777". I personally think that an odd way to level up but also in my opinion, levels hardly matter in Crisis Code as Materia Fusion is the bulk of buffering Zack's stats.

The materia system is similar to the original FFVII at its core but what makes Crisis Core unique is the fusion system. For example, fusing a fire material and a poison material will create a dark fire material. This means it's the fire spell but with added poison and silence status debuffs.

In addition, there are also stat attachments with materia. For example, fusing two blizzard materia with 2+ mag will result in blizzard materia with 3+ mag, and equipping that on Zack will grant him an extra 3+ for the magic stat. Also at certain random times, each equipped material can level up to 5 stars, which is mastery and every level will increase the power and attached stat to the materia.

Between the DWM and the materia system, Crisis Core offers the player incredible depth by creating various kinds of materia and huge stat boosts attached to them. In fact, it's rather very easy to overpower Zack within the midpoint of the game if the player constantly engages in fusion and mastering material.

Especially if the player engages in mission mode. While it's very repetitive, they are brief levels when the objective is to defeat the boss enemy and seek out treasure for new materia and items. Completing certain missions will result in new equipment and unlock new shops that the player will not get in the main story. Personally I enjoy the gameplay loop for mission mode, perhaps thanks to its new QoL improvements for Reunion.

Speaking of the main story, and it's very easy to go in-depth with Crisis Core's gameplay but Final Fantasy has always been known for its stories and the main purpose of Crisis Core is to be a prequel game that leads up to the very beginning of the original FFVII. It starts off with SOLDIER Zack Fair being deployed to end the war between Shiina and Wutai alongside fellow SOLDIER operatives Sephiroth and Angeal.

From a worldbuilding perspective, it's nice to see the universe of Final Fantasy VII a few years before the start of the original game and most of the main and supporting cast such as Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith appear in Crisis Core, although with smaller roles this time around.

However, I was very surprised to see how Sephiroth behaved as a calm and collected character before he became a "fallen hero" and his descent into madness as a villain. Not to mention there are little nods throughout the game that strongly foreshadow locations, organizations, and people that appear in Final Fantasy VII.

As far as using Zack and his journey as a catalyst to depict what happened before the events of Final Fantasy VII, I say the story serves him well and expands him greatly as a character. Considering he was just a minor character in the original game that mainly was there as a flashback when he was saving Cloud's life. Zack is filled with personality as someone who wants to be a hero for his dream and wants to protect his SOLDER's pride with honor all the way up to the very end.

The overall plot for Crisis Core, while it's still connected to the overall Final Fantasy VII universe, it works well enough as a standalone story since the main conflict with Genesis and his forces is fairly detached enough. Although I do find Genesis himself as overly operatic to the point he just didn't quite gel well with the rest of the cast, he is still severable enough as a constant thorn to Zack.

However, one of my biggest complaints about Crisis Code is the final chapter, I just felt it was very rushed and forceful in connecting the ending of Crisis Core to the beginning of FFVII. While the final moments are very emotional despite Zack's fate having been pre-determined due to Crisis Core being a prequel game.

There are just several questions that don't get answered within the game. Naturally, huge plot points like what is next for Sephiroth and Cloud are answered in FFVII. But more some of the finer details that are explicitly related to Crisis Core and less so the other installments of FFVII that don't get an answer, especially during the final chapters.

Also, and this is more for completists, but the DMW system is quite annoying to work with if you want to 100% the system by viewing all DMW flashbacks and summon scenes due to its RNG nature. There are ways to boost a specific character's DMW triggering by equipping multiple mastered materia with thier limit breaks. But even then, it's not a guarantee you will view a flashback when thier DMW is selected.

Personally, I found Genesis in particular very stubborn to trigger and I had to do about an hour of letting the game sit during combat and restarting the battle just for his DMW flashback to trigger. Abit this is a flaw most people will not encounter but it's still a flaw the player can possibly run into and there's nothing to do about it besides having good luck.

Crisis Core may have a few fumbles toward the end of its run but it's otherwise a great entry in the Final Fantasy VII universe with its expanded characterization and worldbuilding and the best usage of the materia system thanks to its in depth materia fusion with plenty of strong RPG elements to experiment. Either way, Reunion does a great job at being a prequel game with its own narrative while also being pleasing enough. Whatever Reunion is used to build excitement for FFVII Rebirth or to revisit a game with a fresh new coat of paint or experiencing Zack's story for the first time. Crisis Core is a well-done compliment for Final Fantasy VII.

The Legend of Nayuta is a game I have been curious about for many years before I got to play it. I knew about its existence for a while and heard it was unconnected to mainline Trails but for a long time, only shoddy fan translations existed. So I was pretty excited back in 2021 when NISA announced they would be localizing Nayuta and considering it was the only Trails game I had not played yet at the time, I was the most excited for it despite my understanding of why localizing Crossbell or Reverie is a bigger deal (but that's another discussion for another time).

The wait was long but this month I finally got my hands on Nayuta and it's a great game despite there being a few things I was eh about. For starters, I just absolutely love the art style and direction. With upscaled textures and a sharp resolution, it felt like I was playing a remaster of an old Dreamcast game from 21 years ago with its HD low poly visuals. So it's even more impressive that Falcom managed to cram its visuals in a tiny PSP back in its original release in 2012.

And not only the visuals feel like I was playing a remastered Dreamcast game, but the gameplay complements that nostalgic feel. Nayuta is listed as an action RPG, similar to Falcom's other games like Ys and Zwei. But personally, it felt like one of those old action platformer games from the early 2000s. There are RPG elements like leveling up, increasing your stats, and doing side quests but the meat of Nayuta's gameplay boils down to playing the stages.

Each stage in Nayuta is when the titular character alongside a fairy named Noi must reach the "end point" to complete the stage. Along the way, there are various elements to attack either with Nayuta's sword abilities or Noi's arts (which are essentially elemental magic spells just like in mainline Trails). As the game progresses, Nayuta will also unlock craft abilities to help him progress the game's platforming challenges.

Speaking of challenges, each stage features three purple crystals to destroy, a treasure chest for new equipment or artifacts, and a mission objective, which is an additional goal to achieve such as defeating a certain amount of enemies or only taking a certain amount of hits or falling off the stage a certain amount of times. Doing these extra challenges will increase your rating for the stage with stars and the more stars you collect, the more abilities and boosts Nayuta will gain with his sword, platforming, and combo streak as well as new equipment.

Nayuta's gameplay is fairly simple in design but with the RPG elements as well as adding on new platforming abilities that even encourage replaying a stage to collect all of the stars, the gameplay never got stale once in my 40 hours within the game. However despite how different the gameplay is from mainline Trails, it certainly shares a lot of story beats with its structure and format. After all it is a Trails game and many people play Trails for the story.

Nayuta is a miniature version of what to expect in Trails and while it never reaches the highs for each mainline arc, it's rather grand considering it's a standalone game with currently no direct connections to the rest of Trails. The premise of the story is about Nayuta, a student studying astrology who goes home to Remnant Island for summer vacation and soon discovers a second world called Lost Heaven and unravels its mysteries that are tied to Nayuta's own world, including the belief that his world is a "flat earth" and it's possible to fall off from the "edge of the world".

Nayuta is formatted similarly to other Trails games with story progression, NPCs update frequently even if the amount of NPCs comes nowhere close to any other Trails game, there are quests to complete that you get from a mailbox and even quests you can only do in new game plus. And of course, talking to certain NPCs at the right time will advance the story.

The plot points, overall, while it's a fairly predictable story with no plot twists that are truly mind-blowing, it's still a very well-executed and focused narrative for the most part. Which may be a pro to some people as Trails games are often criticized for their excessive "bloat". It sets that grand multi-world adventure rather well without overstaying its welcome. That said, while Nayuta does a lot very well, there are a few things that could be improved.

For starters, I found some of the major characters lacking. One of Falcom's biggest strengths is character-focused narrative that especially shines in the Trails series. So it was rather a bit disappointing when not even the best characters (in my opinion of course) get a semblance of development, which is Creha, Signa, and Noi, pales in comparison to what Falcom has written in the past. Granted, it may be a bit unfair to compare a single game, which has far less text and character interaction than any other Trails game that is known for its interconnection (meaning you will see many of these characters in multiple games). However, it's a Trails game in name still, so serving that comparison may be difficult.

Not to mention, I especially found characters such as Lyra especially disappointing. Considering how prominent she's featured in key art of Nayuta, you would think she would have an important role in the game. But it turns out she has no agency or motivations on her own and practically exists only as an extension to Nayuta by simply being an immature love interest to him. I believe the story of Nayuta would play almost exactly the same without Lyra and that's rather disappointing to say for a Falcom game considering I never felt like this for any of the major Trails characters.

Plus, I found the ending of Nayuta to be rather sloppily executed. It just pretty much made the entire final chapter pointless in terms of stakes and sacrifices since Falcom really wanted to push for a squeaky clean perfect "happily ever after" ending. I think I would probably feel better about the ending if they combined the major plot events in the final chapter and the after-story as one huge finale. Because a second "ending" that is basically a reprise of the final ending just feels weird.

Besides a few weak characters who struggled to land the ending moments well, Nayuta is a game that has incited a lot of childhood wonder and memories in me from the PS2 and Dreamcast days, from its charming, vivid low poly graphics, the simple but yet always evolving action platforming gameplay and its concise but epic plotline. Whether or not Nayuta is connected to the rest of Trails, we can have plenty of discussions about that due to its many parallels to the series. However, it's an excellent entry as a standalone game without any requirement of playing the rest of Trails and it nails the balance between being simple and fun and complex and thought-provoking just right.

Okay, let me say this, Cassette Beasts is not a bad game. It does a lot of things pretty fine. In fact, it's pretty impressive that only about 5-7 people total made the game. It's a monster-taming RPG very similar to Pokemon. You go around the open world and platform around to access new locations, which I do find the visuals very charming, and engage in battle with beasts and trainers. You catch these beasts with cassettes by recording them and I really love the idea of having music integral to the game. It just helps give it its own identity.

Cassette Beasts share a lot of the same mechanics as Pokemon such as remasting, which is evolving your beasts into new powerful forms. As well as each beast falls into multiple types of elements; including more unique ones such as glitter, plastic, glass, and toxic. Plus I really like how you can customize movesets and abilities with stickers, even if the sticker doesn't match the element type of the beast. However, my favorite aspect has to be fusion. When you and your partner's beast combine into a new, bigger, more powerful beast that shares the same moveset. Plus I just think it's aesthetically super cool that no two beasts look exactly the same when you fuse them together.

Gameplay-wise...while personally I'm not a huge fan of monster taming in RPGs, I still found it severable and fairly fun. However, it's very barebones in terms of story. I felt like I spent 80% of the game on just going to new areas and fighting.

Cassette Beasts' plot is basically you're a complete stranger who landed on New Wirral, a strange land full of monsters, and you want to get back home. To do that, you need to defeat archangels to search for clues. And in the meanwhile, you can fight against ranger captains to get stamps (much like how you defeat Pokemon trainers for badges) and deal with vampires that may or may not be real estate scammers. That is essentially the plot within a paragraph. Granted there is a few cool moments I don't want to spoil but I found it to be very sparse for the most part.

If anything, the characters that serve as your partners add a lot of spice to the game's writing. They may not be super in-depth that get tons of development but they're still very likable characters that come from different time periods and places. Each partner has a bond system and you are able to learn more about the character's life before they came to New Wirral and even have the option to romance almost any of your partners once you max out thier bond. Plus a lot of the side characters such as the ranger trainers are colorful. They are pretty one-noted and only have a single trope for thier personality but alas they add to the game's vibrant atmosphere.

Other complaints I have is I personally found it super annoying for random people to pop up and challenge me to a fight all of the time, when sometimes I just can't be bothered at all. Plus the game does become very grindy in the post-game, especially since by then most of the content is either randomly generated quests or filling out the bestiary but as far as story content, there isn't much left to do after the final boss. And this is more of a Switch-specific issue but even with the stable patch update, I wasn't particularly a fan of the long load time. It's especially jarring when a loading screen pops up in the middle of walking from one area to another.

Cassette Beasts is a cutesy, fun 20-25+ hour game with some neat vivid ideas to break away from the monster-taming formula Pokemon have dominated for over 25 years. It doesn't truly do anything wrong or awfully. However, there's just much more to be desired with the story writing and there are certain mechanics and tropes I wish Cassette Beasts didn't copy from Pokemon. Maybe because I'm not in love with this subgenre of RPGs but decent gameplay alone can only keep my attention for so long before I would eventually get tired of the game. I don't think Cassette Beasts is bad, I'm just not sure if monster-taming games are for me

Xenogears is a very ambitious game and it’s clear that Tetsuya Takahashi was aiming highly with his vision. Even 25 years later, Xenogears still have more nuanced story writing than most games that came after it. It’s a game filled with interesting and complex ideas that combine Analytical psychology, religious symbolism, and scientific theories wrapped in a war-torn science fiction, mecha-filled setting spanning across centuries. As ambitious as Xenogears is, there is quite a lot of stumbling as the game approached the finish line with questionable game design, plot inconsistencies, irrelevant characters, and a very patchworked disc 2. Despite the many issues Xenogears obtains, it still entertains its promising concept from start to finish and does what it can to share a fraction of the overall scope of Xenogears.

Gameplay-wise, Xenogears is very resemblance to the golden days of the PS1 RPG. Random encounters, action time-based combat, a world map to explore and discover towns, dungeons, and hidden places, etc. all with little to no clear guidance on where to go next to progress the story. However, that’s more of a testament to what was considered standard PS1 RPG design than an element specific to Xenogears. What set apart Xenogears from other Square games such as classic Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger is the Deathblow system. Rather than having a basic attack command, there are three button inputs, square for a light attack, triangle for a heavy attack, and X for a fatal attack. Different combinations can create a Deathblow combo for more damage. In addition, there are ether attacks and abilities (or character-specific alternatives such as chi or arcane) that function similarly to the game’s magic system and the possibility to perform several Deathblows in one turn, known as “combos”, granted if the player has built enough action points (AP) to perform them.

Another major factor in Xenogears’ combat is mecha battles, which are known as Gears in the game. Considering Gears are an essential part of Xenogears’ story, there are several Gears battles to engage in. They share similarities to on-foot combat such as using regular and ether attacks. However, each attack requires fuel to perform and a certain attack level is required to perform Deathblows. The player can also engage in boosting, which will increase the characters’ speed in exchange for more fuel usage. In addition to “special options” that feature Gear-specific attacks or repairing damage granted the Gear has the correct part for the command.

Despite featuring both on-foot and Gear battles, there isn’t much to Xenogears’ battle system. In fact, besides unlocking more Deathblows and ether attacks, the player will see the full extent of its combat system within the ¼ mark of the game. Combat will eventually feel repetitive, especially with the high encounter rate in dungeons and in the world map. Not to mention, the party can only truly get stronger by grinding out battles for more EXP or obtaining better gears to increase stats such as attack and defense for both physical and ether attacks as well as agility to increase speed. However, considering its age and the period the game is from, it’s ultimately serviceable at least.

That said, one of the biggest flaws of the game is at times, the dungeon designs are atrocious and frustrating to deal with. I do not know whose idea it was to include platforming, but it’s some of the worst I’ve ever played in a game. In fact, platforming through Babel Tower was one of the most unenjoyable experiences I had in recent memory and I wanted to just give up on playing the game a few times, especially since it’s quite a time waster to redo certain areas of the dungeon and it have created so much stress and anxiety for me. Plus there are a few dungeons with confusing layouts that feel maze-like and very easy to get lost in without a map. On top of the high encounter rates….exploring dungeons is definitely one of the weakest areas for Xenogears.

Despite its gameplay, which is presented enough at least for the majority of the game, Xenogears biggest strength that often receives praise is the story. It’s a sprawling epic featuring protagonist Fei Fong Wong traveling across the Ignas content to discover the mysteries of the Aveh/Kislev war, the all-ruling Solaris nation, the floating country of Shevat, the religious deity of Ethos, and within himself alongside Elehayym Van Houten, Citan Uzuki, and others. Xenogears have a large scope between various countries, lore, and terminology covered across the game’s narrative and it’s especially impressive considering its age and its fellow contemporaries don’t even come close to the amount of detailed worldbuilding Xenogears contains. One aspect that I’ve particularly found impressive was the occasional updating of NPCs with different dialogue as the story progress. It’s not as text-heavy compared to say…the Trails series that would emerge a few years from now after Xenogears, but it was a pleasant surprise to see this feature in a PS1 game as it helps fleshes out the worldbuilding a tad bit more.

Xenogears starts off very promising with its scale, as the game quickly pushes the plot forward in a very dramatic execution that forces Fei to travel around begrudgingly. During his journey, the player sees Fei develops as a character and understands his role as a Gear pilot as he met key characters that would eventually join his party and understands the current state of each country. However, as the stakes increase all across the country, this means there is more ground to cover and focus for Xenogears. Meaning as the game progress, character motivations and purposes for half of the playable cast will be forgotten and plot points will be more inconsistent and rushed through quickly.

Xenogears serve very well for the protagonist, deuteragonist, and tritagonist. Which are respectively, Fei, Elly, and Citan. These three characters are introduced very early on in the story, within the first few hours, and remain a constant device to advance the narrative. Fei and Elly in particular are explored fully with their own psyche and how both of them play a critical role in the game’s themes of human existence and purpose throughout religious mythology, self-identity, and using technology to achieve the state of godhood and ascension. The two characters complement each other well beyond their surface relationship for each other, but also as the subtext of the role of Psychoanalysis and Metempsychosis. Citan also serves as a foil character to Fei with his calculated methodology approach and juxtaposition to Fei’s emotional and uncontrolled outbursts along with Citan’s own motivations.

While Fei, Elly, and Citan are overall excellent characters that embody the central message of Xenogears, unfortunately, I can not say the rest for the playable characters. It’s common for the PS1 era to let the player form their own three-person team and only the required characters have speaking lines during story moments while the rest are awkwardly silent as if they’re not there at all. However, I personally found that Xenogears mistreats a huge chunk of its characters even for PS1 standards. Besides, Fei, Elly, and Citan, Bart is the most important playable character and does have some significance throughout the game. However, Billy, Maria, and Rico all have a minor arc early in the game that is ultimately used just to spread insight into the game’s world, and beyond that, they have very few lines in the overall story, and if they were cut out from the game, hardly much of anything would be drastically changed. In fact, Chu Chu is merely nothing more than a cutesy mascot character and I’m sure Xenogears will almost be exactly the same game without her. Perhaps Emerlada is the most snubbed playable character. She is introduced right before the end of disc 2 and Emerlada is never a required character to use not once in the game. However, she has so much important lore behind her character that is easily missable and it’s only found at a hidden location right before the final dungeon of the game. It’s quite frustrating and even sad to see how the game eventually forgets about the importance of ⅔ of the playable cast.

Aurbably, a major reason why most of the cast become irreverent overtime is because of the dramatic change of story presentation in disc 2. disc 2, half of the time, is completely narrated by either Fei or Elly at a black void with one of the two sitting down in a chair with a backdrop of still images of them explaining what has occurred. In comparison to how the events of disc 1 unfold, disc 2 feels like a quick summary at times. From my understanding, some say budget cuts are the result of disc 2, while others have said Tetsuya Takahashi felt like he and his team could not fully complete Xenogears within 2 years and have to settle for a compromise. Either way, it’s very evident between the lack of dungeons, open map exploration, and detailed story writing, the development team at some point began to rush through Xenogears.

However, I personally believe not all of disc 2 is messy and incomplete. With how the story presentation is formatted, it serves well to gain and study an introspection of Fei’s psychology and mental state in a way that would be jarring and out of place to do during disc 1. Not to mention the heavy usage of backstory and flashbacks to conceive how much of Xenogears’ setting is built before the start of the game. Disc 2 is rather excellent to enforce the Psychoanalysis and Metempsychosis themes without disrupting the game’s pacing of the present state of events too much.

Xenogears, at a quick glance, is a sci-fi epic that has a lot to tell. Upon further inspection, however, there are some areas that are superior such as Fei and Elly being excellent character studies that enforce the core themes of the game. While other parts such as the rest of the cast slowly become forgotten and the rushed pacing of the plot near the end of the game, there’s still much to be desired as well on top of the awful dungeon design. Xenogears is very flawed but it uses its flaws the best it can to come to a conclusion no matter what, rather than leaving it incomplete, and it’s quite admiring that Tetsuya Takahashi does what he can to tell his vision. While it will be years from now until Takahashi can fully realize his ideas with the Xenoblade Chronicles series, Xenogears is the first example of the boundless potential Takahashi is capable of. As rough and unpolished as it is, there is a diamond underneath the psyche of Xenogears.

After 114 hours, four months with all character events and nearly all side quests completed including the DLC and tons of synthesizing, I have finally completed Atelier Ryza 3. Being the final game in the Ryza trilogy, it’s the most ambitious and grand Atelier game to date. With the most amount of playable characters in an Atelier game, huge open-world areas, and a mysterious plot to unravel. Gust was aiming for the moon with Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key. There is quite a lot of stumbling toward the finish line with some of the story execution and game balance but overall, Ryza 3 does manage to conclude the trilogy in a satisfying enough matter and the alchemy is as open as ever.

One of the biggest selling points of Atelier Ryza 3 is the open world and how the game is three times larger than Atelier Ryza 2, which includes all of Kurken Island, the main area for the first Ryza game, completely seamless with no loading areas. It was interesting to see Gust revisit the open-world idea after Atelier Firis but with even a bigger scope in mind. There is a lot of asset reuse and plenty of landmarks that are completely optional to visit. So some could argue the game is huge for the sake of it but I personally appreciate the second attempt at an open-world Atelier game. My only minor complaint is, graphically while it’s beautiful at times, there are places with low texture and polygon counts. Given the game’s scope and the budget and size of Gust, this isn’t too surprising but it’s an ugly and jarring look at times.

To freshen up the series’ formula between synthesis and combat, one of the major new gameplay (as well as story) elements in the game is the key system. There are a lot of complexities with keys, but essentially, you create hollow (and later pristine) keys, then you use a hollow or pristine key at a landmark or during battle to create a secret key. With secret keys, you can use them to enchant synthesis traits and qualities for items, increase stats and AP during combat, and gather new materials and items at supply boxes for exploration.

Speaking of exploration, there are new features that have been added. Random quests can occur at any time and anywhere in the game. The quests are extremely simple and repetitive since they’re nothing more than hunt, fetch, follow, or trading quests. After a short while, the full extent of random quests will be seen and they will become more easy to ignore when they pop up. However, they’re a useful and excellent way to gain more SP (skill points for the skill tree), gold coins, and money. Also, while a more minor feature of Ryza 3 ultimately, Atelier building will occur in every area you visit. However, there is customization on how each Atelier can give different benefits such as higher SP gain, higher chances of random quests spawning, and higher qualities of materials during gathering.

That said, at its core, Ryza 3 functions the same as the previous entries. Combat is still action-time based but it’s as redefined as ever thanks to skill usage, AP, and tactics levels all overhauled to be as responsive and smooth as ever before. Additionally, there are new features to combat such as order drives and switching between support and aggressive mode to tailor the usage of AP between the party and give the player a tactical edge in battle. Plus the skill tree allows you to unlock adventure gear and high-level synthesis items early in the game. Plus all of Ryza’s previous alchemy abilities such as item duplication and rebuilding, as well as gem reduction, forging, and sending out puni to gather materials. All of the enchantments to item creation can be obtained early on in Ryza 3 if the player desires so since there are no stop points in the skill tree that ties into the main story's progress.

Ryza 3 offers so much in gameplay since the alchemy system is as deep and fruitful as ever with the many tools the player is able to use almost immediately and more to come as they progress through the game. Combining that with the key system, and the potential for high-end alchemy is boundless. However…that can be a double edge sword by itself. From personal experience, I’ve found Ryza 3 to be the most breakable Atelier game to date thanks to all these tools on top of having no time limit like the past Atelier games. Not to mention if the player knows their way with the skill tree and makes the best usage with synthesizing, they can easily be at endgame strength within the midway point of the game. And by the time I completed the main game, I was so overpowered with equipment and items, almost nobody was a challenge at all even at the highest difficulty setting. Now, this can be avoided if the alchemy engagement is done at a minimum, but any game balance is thrown out of the window if the player chooses to get the most out of synthesis.

Now Atelier Ryza 3 offers plenty of depth with gameplay and there’s more that could be explained further but the appeal of Atelier isn’t just about the gameplay, it’s also the story. In Ryza 3, Ryza and her friends travel to solve the mystery of the Code of the Universe and the surrounding Age of God people in the past as well as the purpose and usage of the keys that appear suddenly in front of Ryza. Being the most focused in plot writing and text in the series, Ryza 3’s story offers a lot of lore and background information as well as tidying up any lingering plot threads and character development ongoing since the first Ryza game.

Atelier has always been excellent with character writing due to each character having its own series of events. Characters that have been in all three games such as Kladuia, Lent, Tao, and Bos have been thoroughly developed over the trilogy and evolved but there are still new tidbits to learn about the characters as well as resolving any conflicts that have started since the first game. While new characters such as Federica, Dion, and Kala get additional focus within the main story alongside character events and side quests. Speaking of character events, more characters are often involved in events, to the point one on one conversations are rather rare in Ryza 3. Personally, I like this since more people can draw out different sides of a person, plus the cast is rather very large so the interaction between each character has to fit somewhere.

That said, there are quite some issues with the game’s overall plot. At first, Ryza 3 appears to be very streamlined, focused, and getting straight to the point, assuming the player has played the first two games. However, after the first few hours or so, the game will often put off the main quest of resolving the issue with the Kark Islands and the Age of the Universe to resolve issues surrounding the new characters and the areas they are from. This is great for character writing but in exchange, it hurts the pacing of the plot. Even if the issues Ryza and company resolve are connected to the main conflict eventually, it just takes quite a while to make progress, especially near the end.

Another complaint I have with the plot is there is a lack of significant focus and urgency in Ryza 3 which adds to the jumbled pacing. There isn’t a single main antagonist in the Ryza games at all to actively be a threat to the group. While it wasn’t needed in Ryza 1 and 2 since the themes were more so about coming of age, seeking out adventure; and discovering new ruins, learning about a mysterious creature, respectively. Ryza 3’s story would serve very well with active antagonists since the plot is very actively focused on stopping evil from occurring again. However ultimately, the plot just felt like the group was cleaning up a massive incident that happened thousands of years ago and anyone that could potentially be an antagonist is long gone. It’s quite anti-climatic considering how ambitious and grand Ryza sets out for its narrative.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of Atelier Ryza 3 and even the entire trilogy is Ryza herself as the protagonist. Now I am aware this is the most subjective and personal part of the review but my feelings for Ryza as a character have been very flip-flopping. Ryza has been a massive improvement in the sequel but I was just quite frankly unsatisfied with her by the end of the third game. She has gotten almost no character development at all and when all of her allies have improved in strides, especially the same characters that grew up with her. It’s just not a great look.

Instead in Ryza 3, the game turns her into a convenient mary sue that can solve any immediate issue the game throws at all within minutes, or at best, a trip to the Atelier. There’s no challenge, no obstacle that has beaten down Ryza and took her a while to recover. Plus, in past Atelier games, there was always a deuteragonist that was considered the closest to the protagonist and help them grow and evolve as a person. However, for the Ryza trilogy, it just felt like Ryza wasn’t allowed to be too close to anyone. Ryza just felt like a “safe” protagonist. Lacking in character depth and writing but yet liked by everyone and able to solve the main conflict essentially by themselves and any potential threat to Ryza ended up being a near-instant recovery. I wasn’t sure what was Gust planning with Ryza but I personally believe the lack of a true deuteragonist hinders Ryza’s character overall, especially since this is the first time Gust created a trilogy of Atelier games based around a single character.

Other noteworthy quality-of-life issues I have encountered during the 100+ hours I’ve spent in Atelier Ryza 3 are the dialogue and script for the text is once in a while awkwardly translated or there are spelling or grammar mistakes. Not to mention, for a few side quests (mainly the DLC quests), the reliance on completing random quests which can trigger at any time and determine what the exact triggers is questionable game design. I could not complete a side quest because I struggled to trigger one of the required random quests despite trying different variables. I am not sure if Gust and Koei Tecmo was a tight deadline for Atelier Ryza 3, but despite a month's delay from the original release date, it wouldn’t hurt to have more polish, especially considering the size and scale of the game.

In the end, Atelier Ryza 3 is the biggest Atelier game in terms of scope from large open-world explorable areas, the number of playable characters and interactions, and the most potential for alchemy with its many systems and gameplay elements. All wrapped up with one of the most original and polished attempts in action time-based combat. The plot struggles quite a lot between the lack of focus, no true antagonist, and Ryza leading the charge being plain and uninteresting. But all and all, Ryza 3 does conclude and wrap up the trilogy in an overall solid ending with vague but promising endings for the entire cast as well as the future for Kukuen Island and beyond. The open-world approach can be better redefined and perhaps not give pave the road to the strongest items at the start of the game. However, for the future, my biggest wish for Gust is to return to just put in more character building into the next protagonist for Atelier…and maybe not attempt another epic world adventuring plot for a while.

"And so you shunned the one thing that could made you stronger. Pushed away the hands that could raise you higher. And that's where we're different. I could not made it here on my own. I carry with me the hopes and dreams of my brothers, my sisters. And is it they who will give me the strength to end your reign."

Many people believed Final Fantasy XVI will be a far cry from the series’ origins based on all of the pre-release information. From the Devil May Cry-inspired action combat to the gritty, mature dark fantasy setting influenced by Game of Thrones. Fans of the series doubt the game’s integrity despite beloved Final Fantasy XIV director Yoshi-P serving as the producer of the game, but ultimately Final Fantasy XVI subverted all expectations and become the greatest love letter to the series’ roots in all of the best ways possible while still maintaining its’ own identity. Final Fantasy XVI is one of the greatest games that achieve its grand scope of blending cinematic narrative and gameplay to tell its tale of resisting the cruelty of the world with pure human willpower.

The first thing that can be noticed about Final Fantasy XVI is the game’s visuals. Square Enix has always been a game developer that pushes visual fidelity in the Final Fantasy series with each installment and Final Fantasy XVI is no expectation. From the detailed NPC models to the elemental special effects to the grandiose Eikon battles. Final Fantasy XVI felt like it was truly the first PlayStation 5 game that utilized the system’s capabilities to the fullest’s extent. There are the occasional slowdowns that dip below 30FPS even with the performance mode during the most intense moments of the game. However, Final Fantasy XVI is an incredible and beautiful game with gorgeous set pieces and a stunning art direction that is visualized.

Final Fantasy is also a series known for its iconic score and music with its talented composers and XVI follows the series’ tradition of having a range of soft emotional ballads to bombastic operatic orchestrated pieces during boss battles to ambient soundscapes that serve well as overworld background music. And of course, there are rearrangements to the series’ staples such as the prelude and main theme. The music within FFXVI elevates and heightens the impact of each scene and composer Masayoshi Soken captures the dark fantasy tonality of Final Fantasy XVI. Resulting in some of the best themes in the series’ collection that can rival classic songs.

Final Fantasy has always been a series that evolves and changes its gameplay. From the early action time-based combat to more experimental approaches to gameplay in the later titles. XVI is no different by introducing a new combat system within Final Fantasy. XVI has the typical elements of action RPG combat such as a standard melee and magic attack, precise dodging, and jumping. However, the most unique element with XVI’s combat compared to other Final Fantasy games and even other action RPGs is the Eikon system. Each Eikon is based on the series’ summons such as Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan. By equipping these Eikon, the playable character, Clive, gains a different element to use in battle according to the Eikon such as fire, aero, and stone.

The full potential of XVI’s combat system can be unlocked within the skill tree. By gaining ability points such as defeating enemies and completing side content, there can be different Eikon movesets to unlock, upgrade them to increase their attack potency, and eventually master them so the player can assign the ability to any Eikon, even if the element isn’t matching. As the story progress, more Eikons will be unlocked, giving the player a wider toolset to use to customize their Eikon loadout and experiment with different combos for optimized stagger and damage output. Not to mention, at some point in the game, the player gains a limit break gauge as well that makes Clive immune to death and increases his attack power and speed.

Beyond the combat, the only other gameplay aspect to XVI is stat increases every time Clive level ups as well as gaining new equipment such as swords and accessories to increase strength, defense, and stagger. The equipment can also be crafted and redefined for increased stats as well. While it’s quite shallow compared to other RPGs, it’s effective and easy to understand and does not overly complicate an already refined battle system that can be satisfying to play.

Final Fantasy is always evolving in gameplay for better or for worse, however, the gameplay does not define the series, but rather it’s the stories it tells in each entry. While at the start of Final Fantasy XVI, the tone is a far cry from the rest since the series’ first M rating in a mainline entry allows the game to be very violent, gritty, and mature to match the typical properties of the dark fantasy genre. XVI paints a grim view of the world of Valisthea, divided between six nations that have a magic system that uses crystals to perform magical abilities. And those that do not require crystals are enslaved as Bearers and treated as sub-human, As well as those that can transform into an Eikon, are referred to as Dominants.

Final Fantasy XVI starts off with the main protagonist, Clive Rosfield, that loses everything he once knew and his home of Rosaria due to a coup d'etat performed by the Holy Empire and spends the next 13 years of his life as a Bearer soldier for the Empire and filled with rage and hatred. And this is just the first 2 hours of a 35-hour main adventure with its unexpected twists and turns in every direction. The start of the game is very reminisced of Game of Thrones, but as the story progresses, it naturally evolves into a tale that is more than worthy of the title of “Final Fantasy”.

Final Fantasy tales is about warriors of lights defeating evil and darkness plaguing thier worlds to bring dawn for a better tomorrow and XVI is no different from the rest. Final Fantasy XVI becomes a beautiful tale about the sheer willpower of the human spirit even in a dying corrupted world and breaking the cycle of inhumane treatment and the burdens of magic, even if that means tearing down everything the people of Valisthea knew. Thus it marks the final cycle of a cruel, miserable fantasy. Between the subtle references from past Final Fantasy titles throughout Clive’s adventure and XVI sharing many themes from classic games, Final Fantasy XVI is a dear love letter for the series’ fans on what it means to be Final Fantasy while still having its own unique, modern spin.

Going from the hopeless despair found in dark fantasy at the start to themes of hope, change, and resistance is a massive leap in tonality and one could wonder how to achieve such a drastic change without being jarring and Final Fantasy XVI achieves this very naturally and organic thanks to the expansive world building and character development Cilve and his allies gain. They struggle and fight onwards through even the most daunting challenges. With each threat more sinister than the last, Clive and his allies continue to build strength to resist.

Final Fantasy XVI is also a very heartfelt and emotional tale about the love of Clive for his dearest companions and learning to accept himself for who he is and what he can do. Throughout XVI’s story, the player witness the strong bonds Clive forms and how he will do just about anything for them. Such love is so precious and tender, I’ve personally cried and shed tears in a handful of scenes and I almost never do that when I’m experiencing a story.

What can serve as the peak and cumulation of Final Fantasy XVI is the dramatic and cinematic Eikon battles that occur often in the main story and it blends together its gameplay and story into one interactive, immersive battle. With its intense visuals that push the PlayStation 5 to its limit and grandiose, triumph soundtrack. These battles create a powerful jaw-dropping impressive display of action and momentum that just manages to outdo itself every single time especially when the high stakes of the main story just increase more and more.

On top of its thrilling and epic main story, one of the greatest aspects of Final Fantasy XVI is the side quests. Each side quest expands on Valisthea and its six nations with details not found in the main story as well as personal quests with your allies that create a chance to bond with them stronger and get to know their history and motivations. The side quests can range from getting a clearer idea of the manmade horrors of Bearer treatment to giving children hope to pursue thier dreams to protecting a village from monsters.

However, as the game progress, the side quests become more involved and feature characters in the main story with their own trials and tribulations, they have their own mini-story in the span of a side quest chain. These stories match the overall grim state of the world and sometimes they can end tragically but they also reinforced the theme of unity and bringing people of all life of walks together to stand strong against the most immediate threats that will affect everyone. Not to mention the side quests flesh out and builds upon lore and world-building found across the game.

Final Fantasy XVI is a very dense and intricate tale with various terminology, characters and locations to follow through and sometimes it can be quite difficult to comprehend every detail the game throws at you. However one of the most brilliant inventions for narrative-heavy games is the active time lore system. Holding down the touchpad at almost any given moment will present the player with the most relevant information currently happening on screen. It’s a great way to refresh on certain topics and it’s always updating based on the events that occur and even lists small details that weren’t directly explained on screen. The ATL entries are also stored within an NPC in the hub location, so lore explanations are never missable and could be easily reviewed as well.

Another brilliant and excellent way Final Fantasy XVI hammers on with its complex world-building is The State of the Realm. By accessing this NPC, the player can view current relations with every major character across Clive’s allies and those that are under the six nations as well as the relations for each major story event that has occurred in the past. There is also a map that visualizes the movements of each major party across the continent and the events that occur at a certain location. Between the ATL and The State of the Realm, Final Fantasy XVI is one of the best games to educate and reinforce lore and world-building in a story with its dynamic tools to help the player understand the narrative from different angles and approaches.

Hunts are another side activity the player can eventually engage with by going to the hunt board and speaking to the Moogle next to it. These monsters rank from C to S based on strength and difficulty and the hunts test and challenge the player’s combat skill and how well they understand the fundamentals of the Eikon system. While it’s fairly easy to understand, the hunts prove it’s a hard system to master since it is very dependent on knowing what each Eikon ability you are equipped with what can the player exactly do, and how to chain them together in a specific way for optimization. The hunts are a great way to get the most out of Final Fantasy XVI’s gameplay. However, it would be ideal to access the hunt board on the main menu rather than just at the hub location since it can be difficult to memorize where each monster is approximately located.

For all of the greatness and amazingness Final Fantasy XVI achieves with its story, gameplay, and presentation, it is not free of flaws. Towards the end of the game, there are a number of plot holes that is unexplained or contradicts the game’s established logic. They are minor but notable enough. Also, quite a few main characters do not develop as much in comparison to others or had their character arc ended too soon and just stagnated as a character afterward. Not to mention the aforementioned occasional performance hiccups and the hunt board's lack of accessibility. However, for every flaw the game has, it’s easily overshadowed by how much Final Fantasy XVI does amazingly well with its theming and story execution.

Between the emotional, heartfelt main story about fighting for a better tomorrow in a harsh, violent dark fantasy by experiencing Clive’s journey, the well-executed and smooth battle system, and its deep lore and world-building expanded with its side quests. All while having some of the series' best scores and utilizing everything the PS5 is capable of to create these cinematic over- the-top Eikon battles that really capture the energy and spirit of Final Fantasy XVI. It just as well be one of the greatest games of all time and Square Enix’s best effort of displaying what it means to be a Final Fantasy game down to the core. Final Fantasy XVI is a generation-defining game that will have the same renowned legacy as Final Fantasy VII and X over time. Final Fantasy XVI is the reason why anyone should pick up a PS5 and experience such an epic and legendary tale of hopes and dreams that only Square Enix can visualize.