Man, I dunno.

The game makes an excellent first impression with creative art direction that immediately pulls you in. The characters are solid, balancing what we know from the MCU against a unique take on the guardians. But seriously, this thing is paced torturously at times. The ability progression is stretched really thinly across a 17-hour playthrough, which means you reach the apex of your arsenal with ages left to play. It means the tail end of the game becomes a total drag gameplay wise, which is a bummer because I think there are elements of the climax that are genuinely great. It just sucks I was already worn down by the experience by this point. It either needed to be shorter to have a more sharp experience, or more enemy variety and ability combinations to make it feel more concise.

Still, I can't ignore how much I loved the design of every location in the game. It's a fantastic example of aesthetic appeal carrying much of the experience, for better and worse.

Totally exceptional environmental storytelling that presents The Oldest House as a place that breathes, pulsates, and shifts as if irritated. The shooting is fairly fun, but I wish it had given me some more abilities to make it really fast and zippy. The ashtray maze is one of the peak moments, and the rest of the game doesn't quite reach that level of forward propulsion. The story also goes out of its way to be overly obtuse, and I feel like a more straightforward emotional throughline would have had a heavier impact.

Square and Nintendo are a match made in heaven for this RPG. The combat is super simple compared to Square's other RPGs of the time, but I think that's what makes this so accessible and such a genre entrypoint at the time. The timed attack and defense functionality in combat adds an extra element of active play to the encounters, that makes this far from a passive experience. I loved the puzzle and light platforming elements of the game worlds, which cement this as a really special game that plays between both of its influences. Of course the music is fantastic, and the 3D-rendered graphics make for a Mario that looks totally unique. After the more intense RPG playthroughs of Final Fantasy 4 and 6 (5 will come later), this was a welcome, light experience that certainly earns its warm reputation. I'd love to see Mallow and Geno back for a future game!

I didn't love Final Fantasy 4 as much as 6 and 7, but still found great enjoyment in the story, characters, and the ever-reliable ATB combat system. Maximum inventory limits remain a pain, as does the lack of separation between regular items and key quest items, both issues that would be improved in those later entries. Even so, I still didn't regret my time with this one. I did have to do a little grinding to beat the final boss, but still felt a sense of achievement either way. I'd recommend playing this before some of the later entries, as your mileage may vary with going back to those more frustrating elements.

Demo Only!

I just finished the Steam Demo of the Riftbreaker, and it was a lot of fun! it's a combination of real-time strategy and action RPG, where you're placed right in the action in a mech suit whilst also building defences and managing your power generation and output. The demo already showed a tonne of variety in enemies, gameplay objectives, and the aesthetic of the game itself. Consider me very keen to check this out on launch this year, it felt really slick to play and looks to be very special.