I’ve known about this game for a minute and just avoided it because of the cover art. It didn't really look like my kind of game. What reminded me of this game's existence was seeing a tweet around a week ago that Wild Woody was added to an NSFW kart racing game. I had to do a double take, but it was actually real. I shouldn’t be surprised considering the name of the game, but, like, wow. I consider myself to be a fan of the Sega CD, so I did want to give this game a try.

The controls are some of the worst I’ve seen in the medium. When jumping, Woody stutters when rising and falling, so it ends up feeling like you’re rubber banding in an online game. Woody’s main form of attacking is jumping on enemies, which will play out an animation where he sinks into the enemy while erasing them from the level. There’s been times where I would try jumping on enemies upwards of 5 times in a row and it would still not register! He’s also got this sketch ability where you’ll have to press the pause button, flip through the sketch book to find the ability you want to use, and activate it, which plays out an animation. Admittedly, a cool idea, but badly integrated since you can only use 2 of these before having to get a powerup later in the level. For the most part, these are useless in the sense that they obstruct the flow of the game and are never good enough to where you’d even think of using them instead of just damage boosting through whatever enemy is in front of you. Abilities are mostly some awkward projectile or something that transforms you into something for more jump height and movement speed, all controlling as bad if not worse than your standard form. For example, there’s ones that turn you into a kangaroo and hobby horse.

This game is not good in the level design department either. Wild Woody has the design philosophies of Sonic CD with these large, incoherent mazes I’ve gotten lost in for some embarrassingly long times. Also cluttered with enemy placements that, at times, make taking damage feel unavoidable. It’s so bad you’re better off just damage boosting through everything since you’ll probably take more damage trying to avoid them. The enemies also really like throwing unfair projectiles, which you can’t even avoid at times. It’s evident this game was a rush job, and the stage design really makes that show. I get the vibe that they made the levels and didn’t even try playing through the game because a ton of stages have platforming segments that are way too awkward to perform consistently. In the Mount Olympus stage, there is a part where you literally have to take a leap of faith and hope you land on a small platform instead of falling below the area and having to climb back up again. I haven’t mentioned yet that Woody has an ability where he can erase areas of the map to find secrets and progress through the stage. That’s fine; at the start of the game, they highlight these areas to let you know you can erase them, but past level 1, they never mark them again. So, there are areas I’ve gotten trapped in where you just have to waste time guessing where the erasable floor or wall is. Funnily enough, they also increase the time to do so in later stages if it wasn’t already cryptic enough, because then you’ll have to wait longer to erase things with no prior indication.

First impressions of the music from stage 1 sound bad initially, but make more sense since Ron Thal who did the music, said that he made the soundtrack start off silly and progressively get more intense throughout. So even though the first song sounds like a prog rock cover of a nursery rhyme, it does start to pick up the pace with the later stages. My favorite songs are the space stage theme and this song that went unused due to a presumed programming bug. It's a bit goofy, but the high-tempo drums and the piano make for a pretty kickass boss theme, so it’s sad this song didn’t make it in.

How was this released?! Ristar literally came out earlier in the year, and this was supposed to be the swan-song for the Sega CD? How unfortunate… It’s a shame because I think this game had the potential to be pretty cool. I also think it's hilarious that the platforming mascot shit got so out of hand that they made one for a fucking pencil… At least the soundtrack is good.

For reference, I played the Steam version of Persona 3 on hard difficulty.

Persona 3 Reload is a near-perfect experience for me personally. This game has a lot going for it but Id be lying if I said I enjoyed every aspect of this, as I believe they dropped the ball on a few instances in this game. This review won’t contain any major story spoilers but I might hint at some stuff in here. Read at your own discretion. I'll first go into what I like about this game and what it does good.

Firstly, the graphics and engine upgrade is one of the first things you notice, everything looks much cleaner and a lot better. Compared to P5 it's a massive graphic update. They went overkill with every aspect of the UI as well, making sure every menu has some sort of graphic, at least in the pause menu, each one of them having a hidden meaning which I think is a nice touch. While they toned it down in terms of the splash screens doing all-out attacks compared to P5, the simpler style still fits well. Where they shine is the theurgy special attacks. It all just looks amazing. The characters feel less stiff and more lively during any sort of talking sequence.

I consider this battle system the best out of 3, 4, and 5 (Insert obligatory persona joke that the first 2 don't exist.) They brought back baton pass under a new name, shifting. A standard version of giving your turn to another party member without the added benefits of baton pass in Persona 5, which is fine considering it was incredibly broken. And, you're never gonna believe this, you can CONTROL your party members. Yep, you heard me right. Shocking shit I know. On top of that, they rebalanced every party member from the original Persona 3, regardless if there is a “best” party every character is viable regardless of team comp as long as you fuse enough personas for the main protagonist. The new system to Persona 3 and what makes it unique is the newly implemented theurgy system. Every turn in battle fills up this meter so unleash a super move each character has. Each character has their own criteria to boost the meter more to get the move faster (I.E Yukari’s meter fills faster when she heals hurt party members.) My one issue with this while it adds that dopamine when you get it, there's no downside to using this, and is just there to make the game easier without any repercussions using overpowered moves. Other than that, this game is incredibly balanced in my opinion. I was over-leveled for a majority of the game with min-maxed personas and I still had some trouble with bosses. The battles encouraged me to use items as well and correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't as encouraged or even necessary in 4 and 5. On top of all of this, the shuffle system is completely revamped and is no longer random, you can even reliably trigger it by finishing the battle with an All-Out Attack. The only random thing about it is which cards appear. While admittedly, it loses a bit of its identity, and no reason for it to be called shuffle time anymore, this is a much better and welcome change. The enemy AI is much smarter in this game and follows up more with hitting weaknesses. The most notable fight that I had trouble with was The Reaper. He was easily the hardest fight in this game and it doesn’t come close in my opinion. It took me around 40 minutes to beat him using all of my resources. And on top of all of that, there is still more minibosses through these doors that appear randomly that will reward you a decent amount. There still isn't even stuff I’ve covered but the point is that they made the gameplay loop more engaging and intuitive. Never have I felt the need to keep fusing until now. I finished with an 89% compendium registry. I usually finish with around 50-60% which I think says alot.

The story in this game is 1 to 1 with the original with added segments of the antagonists of the game for the better. They are done much better and build the characters more throughout. And this goes for all of the characters. Comparing it to the original, every character is more fleshed out and given more opportunities to learn more about them and it was done amazingly. Sadly, you can miss a few as all of them are timed therefore missing out on the character-building. Another neat edition is the characters talking mid-combat to each other when they shift or hit a weakness. It's a very small thing that can go unnoticed but for me, it added a lot.

The VAs in this game also killed it, dare I say this is my favorite entry in terms of the voice-acted cast. I think the social links being voice-acted for sure adds a lot. I didn't think I would enjoy this cast more than the original but they nailed it and I actually prefer them over the original.

Now, some minor nitpicks that I want to point out before I go into my dislikes are one of them being that I personally think the VA for Yukari just misses some lines. None that ruined the game nor killed the character for me but enough to the point where it was bothersome and annoying. I can't remember what lines exactly but besides those few she is fine. Makoto (the protagonist) also is too quiet when getting shifted compared to when he summons his persona it doesn't match the energy. One more thing is that the “child” voice actors definitely don’t sound like children. They just sound like adults putting on their best teen impression.

Ok NOW onto my dislikes I have with this game and my main grievance with this remake is that it's TOO faithful of a remake. Meaning they didn’t fix some of the issues that FES had. Including some certain story scenes where it ruins the theme of the game. IYKYK. While the confidants are much better voice acted, aside from the party members I find it extremely hard to care for any of them nor do they add much to the story. I was hoping they would add or even change most of them to make them more appealing or at least somehow relate to the character. The only confidant that I felt that was done well was the sun arcana. My favorite arcana in the entire series at that. Shame that they didn't expand on them as much. And while I was invested from the get-go because I already knew the story, it still took too long for the game to pick up during the story.

Expanding on my point that it's too faithful of a remake, there still isn't enough to do at night around the midgame. Once your stats are maxed out and you get every character's special characteristic there is literally nothing to do. Also very disappointing to see they didn't expand any areas you could go to. I excused the first game as it was a first in the series but seeing them stick to it in the remake is inexcusable. Another thing that really killed the impact of one of the scenes was one of the scenes during the end of the game. I won't go into details but I really don't see why they changed it and the original was much more impactful.

All in all, I still think this game is amazing and does enhance the original in many ways but sadly downgrades it in others. An almost perfect remake in my eyes that they sadly didn't push as much as they should've. Thank you for taking the time to read this review as this is the first time I've decided to go full lengths to review a game this important to me.

Revelations: Persona was the first Shin Megami Tensei game released in the West. No, Jack Bros. does not count. Sorry guys. I had thought this was the only game with the weird “Revelations” surname, but I recently found out a GBC port of the first Last Bible game was released in the west as “Revelations: The Demon Slayer." It's kind of weird to think that there’s an alternate timeline where SMT3 would’ve been called “Revelations: Nocturne” or something like that.

This game has a notoriously bad localization job, and I’m sure most have at least seen some things about it. The game's script was altered to take place in America instead of Japan, and Atlus tried to make it seem that way, but it's pretty easy to see through since the characters are clearly wearing Japanese school uniforms and the song playing in the pharmacy has Japanese lyrics. Character names were also changed to sound more standard. Nanjo’s name was changed to Nate, and Maki’s name was changed to Mary, to name a few. Character designs were also changed, most notably Mark being changed into a racist stereotype. It also seems that anyone who had black hair had their hair color altered to blonde or something. Why is this? No idea. And I thought Working Designs was shit at localizing.

Well, firstly, about the gameplay, Persona 1 struggles with its balancing. Most enemies will barely do any damage to you, let alone even hit you. Paired with how slow this game is, it tends to get pretty dull at times. Most of the boss fights are also complete pushovers that never challenge your wits. The only time I was really strategizing and switching personas was the final boss, which can be RNG-reliant, is held at the end of the final dungeon, and can take 2-4 hours to get through with no save in between! Nonetheless, it still serves to make you use everything you can at the end.

About the personas, though, unlike later entries in the series, this game actually lets you equip 3 personas for each character. It requires a lot more planning than just fusing for the main character, as you’ll need to have personas that are better suited to the whole party’s traits. Mark should get personas with high strength, Mary/Maki should get dexterity/agility, stuff like that. You’ll also have to level up the personas by using their moves in battles in order to unlock their full moveset. So, I was switching them around and getting all their moves, which at times can prove very useful. At the start of the game, I had gotten a persona with a Heal All move that only cost 7 MP, and that carried my ass through the entire game and helped tremendously on the final boss. It’s super fun fusing in this game and getting oddball broken shit when it feels like you’re not even supposed to a lot of the time. It never really breaks the game, though, since traditionally with Megaten games, a lot of enemies are going to repel certain attacks, so you’ll not be able to really use the same move the whole time.

There’s also this kind of cool SRPG formation mechanic in the game too. You’ll have to move your party of 5 around on this formation grid to best suit their strengths. If they’re in areas in the back, they’ll take less physical damage but will also not be able to reach enemies with their physical attacks. One of my characters, Brad/Brown, had good reach with his spear, so he was able to be placed in the middle and still attack most of the enemies with his physical attacks. You also don’t want them all to be placed too close to each other, since there’s area magic in this game that extends to other party members when hitting someone. Truthfully, it’s not super important, and you can kind of use one formation the whole game and it’ll work fine. I only found myself really using this mechanic on the final boss for the most part.

My favorite aspect of Persona 1 is how it absolutely nails its atmosphere, mostly due to how outstanding this game's soundtrack is. There are these really creepy songs that fit super well when dungeon crawling, and then some of my favorites in this game are these ethereal and relaxing tracks that play during cutscenes or downtime. There’s barely any misses, and it definitely became one of my new favorite OSTs.

Also adding to this game's atmosphere is its first-person dungeon crawling. Many would call it dated; I would call it a different perspective. Honestly, design-wise, it's kind of boring. Most RPGs would have treasure at the end of dead ends, but Persona 1 doesn’t. Instead, you’ll rarely find these rooms with a few treasure chests in them, which, for the most part, have nothing useful in them. I would have really liked to see more of these rooms, as they really would have given me more of a reason to fill out the map. Thankfully, this game has a map that fills out as you progress in dungeons, so you’ll not need graph paper or anything like that! Accompanying this map is a mini map at the top right of the screen that will show you pieces of the map that you haven’t been to yet from the radius of your character. I didn’t realize until my friend pointed it out, but I was literally just staring at the mini map because it just shows you the dead ends so you can completely avoid getting lost. It’s a huge quality of life thing, but a little bit too much in my opinion, and it made the dungeons effortless since combat is also very easy.

Besides the gameplay aspect, I think the dungeons are really cool. They all have their own designs and music, and strangely enough, they have different walking sound effects to accompany the different terrain. I really like when you’re walking around the school and it plays these recorded sounds of someone walking on the tile. It's kind of a weird thing to point out, but it really just added a level of immersion for me. There’s also surprisingly great sound design in this game, too. In combat, there’s so much reverb and punch to attacks, and that makes them feel effective.

When going into different areas in the overworld, the characters in your party will all be present, and you will be able to speak to all of them. When different story events are taking place, they will all have unique dialogue for all the areas in the game, that being stuff like the clinic or shops. This was a level of care that I was surprised to see, and it helped me get attached to the cast of characters. I really wish more games would do stuff like this.

Lastly, I love the UI in this game. In the menu, there’s this blue and orange grid, and on top of that, your options are all allocated to an orb on what looks like a solar system. Then, in combat, your options are these metallic-looking boxes that, when highlighted, glow orange. It looks a lot cooler than I made it sound though, I promise. I didn’t really know where to throw this in either, but in battle, there’s multiple of these psychedelic moving backgrounds that look like they're straight out of Earthbound and look really sick.

Persona 1 does a great job at using all the PS1’s new bells and whistles. It excels in so many departments and looks great in both its 2D and 3D sections. There’s so much effort in areas that didn’t even need them, and it works great as a horror RPG of sorts. It’s tough to recommend this game though, since it’s honestly pretty inaccessible. But, if you can look past how dated and slow the game is, it is one that will not be forgotten.

I would hate to be one of the people who refuse to play the game because it doesn't have social links, flashy UI and non first person gameplay just to miss out on what I consider to be a well told story that isn't as drawn out and boring as other persona games. I’m serious too, the first person gameplay really isn't bad and I can't understand what drew me away from this game when I first played it.

I figured I would have hated this game a lot more than I did, and it really isn't even bad at all. I had no trouble with the combat and fusing in this game and found it fun especially near the end of the game when things started opening up, I would even go as far to say that it's my favorite fusion system in the series since every character is able to equip three personas of your choosing. It’s never too overpowered because most of them usually have 4-5 moves max, though the game is really easy so I guess this doesn't really matter much Lol

Should be noted that in the psp version of this game, it's hard to pay attention to anything but the mini map when exploring mazes because the gameplay is too fast, even when you’re not running and toggling skip animations during battle. I'm not exaggerating either you're actually running at mach 5 and getting into constant encounters because for some reason they decided the encounter rate needed to be raised. To that end I wish I listened to my friend @Zotol and played the ps1 version when he told me to, but instead because he hates using the emulator I sent him what’s apparently a “half broken psp” even though it was perfectly fine aside from being smashed with a Warwood Tool 3 lb. Double-Faced Small Sledge Hammer - Tools for Home Improvement - Tools & Home Improvement - Made in the USA and being dropped in the toilet twice (he didn't notice though)

I loathe being called a persona fan so let's just leave it at "persona 1 fan"

Once you beat this game ask yourself if there is a single change in the story that you prefer over the original. I get that isnt the point of the game at all but i cant stand this modernization and re-imagining shit that theyre doing

For the first 10 hours I was screaming “hell yeah!” because i do genuinely love these characters and i don’t think ill ever get bored of seeing them interact with each other, on top of that seeing the remade locations from the original and hearing the music from the best soundtrack ever remade in stunning orchestrations is as phenomenal as it is nostalgic, however a good 60% of the time it either feels like ive played this game 40 times before or i just hate it.

I could go on for days about why the gameplay, strictly the combat, is amazing and easily the best action based system in the series (even though the bar is nonexistent), though it stops being as impactful when all im doing is grinding out the uneventful and unneeded filler main story quests that are there just to make the game 30 hours longer to get to the fun combat. Push object A to point B then climb a yellow wall while following a map marker that shows you exactly where to go at all times I LOVE CONSUMING SLOP😋 Of course this also heavily applies to the mundane and surprisingly small “open world” which is cool for the first 30 minutes and then quickly becomes boring as you realize there’s really nothing to do in it aside from fight enemies and do occasional QTE sequences. It’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s just very generic.

The story is just fan service and while some elements are cool its actual slop and that’s alright because sometimes it’s ok to treat yourself to some junk food (shit like this game) after eating healthy greens (the original game) there was another joke i wanted to make but i can’t even remember i think im developing alzheimers something something cell degradation
Once you beat this game ask yourself if there is a single change in the story that you prefer over the original. I get that isnt the point of the game at all and that this is supposed to be its own thing or whatever, but i cant stand this modernization and re-imagining shit that theyre doing because they’re doing it so horribly wrong

For the first 10 hours I was screaming “hell yeah!” because i do genuinely love these characters and i don’t think ill ever get bored of seeing them interact with each other. That very well could be the best part about this game, because there wasn’t a point where I got bored of the character writing, and honestly it was one of the few things getting me through the boring ass story aside from seeing the remade locations and music, however a good 60% of the time it either feels like I’ve played this game 40 times before or I just hate it.

I could go on for days about why the gameplay, strictly the combat, is amazing and easily the best action based system in the series (even though the bar is nonexistent), though it stops being as impactful when all im doing is grinding out the uneventful and unneeded filler story that are there just to make the game 30 hours longer to get to the fun combat. Push object A to point B then climb a yellow wall while following a map marker that shows you exactly where to go at all times I LOVE CONSUMING SLOP😋and of course this also heavily applies to the mundane and surprisingly small “open world” which is cool for the first 30 minutes and then quickly becomes boring as you realize there’s really nothing to do in it aside from fight enemies and do occasional QTE sequences. I want to make it clear that im not one of those console warrior people who care about the world size and loading screens because i really could give less of a shit but I am a firm believer in quality over quantity and like most open slop games this doesn’t follow that mantra. It’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s just very, very generic. Also Charley or whatever that assholes name is has to shut the fuck up

The best way I can summarize my thoughts on the story is that it’s just fan service for really hardcore final fantasy 7 super fans who either dont know how to read between the lines or read between the lines too much. Like I’ve said about pretty much everything in this game… it’s cool…. But its just slop… and that’s alright because sometimes it’s ok to treat yourself to some junk food (shit like this game) after eating healthy greens (the original game) there was another joke i wanted to make but i can’t even remember i think im developing alzheimers something something cell degradation

I think what it comes down to is that this game is always either way too scared to do anything impactful during key story sequences or when it’s somewhat impactful it completely fumbles by doing some weird multiverse bullshit that shouldn’t have even a suggestion. I have not been a fan of anything they’ve done with FF7 and its characters since the original game and i guess crisis core and this is a key reason why. That being said, am i going to buy Final fantasy vii: reborn? Of course. I love slop💕😋 and i love final fantasy

I haven't played many SRPGs... When I was a kid I managed to do the worst possible run of FE7 anyone has ever seen. I got stuck on chapter 18 or something and was forever saddened that I had wasted hours dedicated to an unsalvageable run. Ever since then I've shuttered at the idea of playing SRPGs with railroading progression. History has changed though, as I have finally done what I have been scared to do my entire life and finished a playthrough of an SPRG.

The story is nothing special, but it's executed very well. It's an RPG war plot where you have to build a team to go fight the evil empire. Nothing crazy there of course, although the characters were definitely the driving force for me to care about it. They're tropey, but it's satisfying to see their developments play out. They feel like they're all great friends too; kind of gave me some Lunar vibes as far as that goes. Working Designs did good with the localization this time too. I think they added more life into a would-be dull story. Their signature "humor" is present here while they still know how to have their serious moments in the story too. They got a few laughs out of me this time around, but it was equally paired with some cringey moments as well. I have Working Designs Stockholm syndrome though, so I'm biased. There's also different story routes you can take with exclusive characters, maps, and so on. I eventually want to go back for a replay to see the other content since it seems interesting.

The gameplay is different from the SRPGs I've played. You characters pilot "All Terrain Armored Combatants" also known as "Mechs!" Upon entering battles it loads in a new environment as you watch the 3D mech battles play out. They look cool, however I usually like turning this stuff off as I have difficulty remembering my strategies when I have to pause and watch what are essentially cutscenes in-between my movements. One of the most notable things to me at least is that there's very limited ways to heal your team, so you'll have to minimize taking damage in any way you can. I know that's like a "no shit" for video games, but.. yeah. The way you do this is by flanking the enemy from behind so they're not able to counter-attack you and so you do more damage. You're also able to pick a direction upon moving so you can hopefully prevent getting flanked yourself. I was happy to find out upon playing that this game does not have perma-death. If a unit dies they'll just be out of the game until the next chapter. There's no way to bring them back in the current battle, but at least I didn't have to reset constantly when I got RNG fucked a few times. When leveling up you're also able to distribute a few stats to your character. This is a cool layer of customizability since you can dump a bunch of points into a stat that a character is currently struggling with. There's also special moves characters can learn when they reach enough points in certain stats. I wish that was touched on better since I had no idea when I was playing, so just keep that in mind I guess... or don't. There's a bunch of nuances to the combat but I'll let y'all figure out the rest for yourselves. It's fun stuff.

When I was forced to manage EXP better, it did make the experience very engaging. I basically completed the game in a day since I was having so much fun with it. I don't think this game is very beginner friendly though. I was definitely getting my ass beat at the end and thought I wouldn't even be able to finish it. Luckily, from some God-given miracle, I was able to pull through. Vanguard Bandits is definitely worth giving a go despite the challenge. I might just be ass at video games, but even so... put on your thinking cap when you're playing this one.

Demon's Crest, being the third game in the Gargoyles Quest series, which are platformers with RPG progression, decides to open up the formula and let you tackle levels in your own order, Mega Man style. The difference being, in the Gargoyle's Quest games, they had linear structure. So, what's the issue here?

This game was not designed around the upgrades it gives you. Even from the very start the game gives you the ability to infinitely hover which allows you to bypass a lot of the level design. This, and other abilities give many sections no challenge. The only instances of this game I remember being a fun challenge was when I did not have a lot of health at the beginning and was forced to learn boss patterns. The bosses are well designed and fun but you can just tank through a lot of them later on. The soundtrack is also pretty boring and repetitive. It's a shame because Gargoyle's Quest 1 and 2 each are designed well and have you utilize your abilities equally throughout the games, instead of this games lack of thought out upgrade distribution.

This game's worth trying if you like permanent character upgrades. Not an awful game, but it still has glaring issues.