A delightfully unique jrpg that I can see why it inspired so many other great games. It’s a near perfect game, the only thing bogging it down for me is I often get tired of old JRPG fighting around the 30 hour mark, but every other aspect perfectly excels. Everything from the characters, to the music, to the environments and animations just oozes so much charm and creativity. My only real complaint with the areas is as it goes on it goes from lively cities with lots to do to a bunch of just wilderness areas with a peppering of some npcs here and there. The final fight was crazy unique and I’m very glad I randomly thought to pray during it. Also love that this can be played with one hand, more games need that. Very glad to have experienced this.

Absolutely stellar arcade style ARPG. Played the Devilution X port on my Miyoo Mini so don’t know how close my experience was compared to playing on a PC back in the day, but being able to save as quick and often as I wanted and the ability to pick up and play for a couple minutes and put it down was absolutely enthralling. My play style was very aggressive, and the game pushed back. I cleared rooms very quickly and died even faster. The gameplay loop of clearing out a level, then going back to town to sell my treasure and stock up on potions was wonderfully satisfying. It didn’t have much in the way of deep storytelling, but damn can it effectively create an atmosphere with the little resources it had. The low light stone dungeons mixed with the spooky soundtrack were a great one two punch. Highly recommend for something quick to chip away at.

This game doesn’t set out to do much, but what it does end up doing id say it pulls it off pretty well. A streamlined Metroidvania without any of the fluff, and sometimes that’s all you need. No backtracking and shooting random walls in order to progress, and every new path that opens with a power up is pretty apparent because you were probably just there half an hour ago. The pixel art is delightful and manages a very sleek intriguing design with minimal detail, and the sound design along with the movement is very satisfying. Initially I was annoyed at the reskinned boss fight for each one, but eventually grew to love it. As I was growing so was this creature that I hated so much, just because I can find power ups as I explore doesn’t mean it can’t too.

Story leaves a bit to be desired and it’s fairly predictable but that’s ok! This is an insanely tight package of stellar and unique mechanics across a surprisingly vast array of fully fleshed out worlds. From what I had seen prior I expected maybe 5-6 unique settings but they just kept coming and coming and coming and whenever an idea would be repeated later on it would always have a unique spin on it specific to that world. The animation/mocap is very cheesy and reminiscent of early 2000s platformers, but they somehow still managed to cram so much emotion into those lifeless doll eyes. Also loved how on ps4 whenever the book guy popped up in the cutscenes with the magic dust it would drop to like 6fps

Absolutely breathtaking, one of the most human games i've ever played. Especially the segments depicting your bodily senses in the moment, after playing for a while sometimes i'd leave with a much more aware sense of my humanity and physiology. It's very breathtaking to play a vast open world game where every single breadcrumb and dialogue option feels unique and necessary, no filler no repeats. This is also the only game i've played that I feel could have an entire fictional history textbook written on the expansive world building/history within. I'm a person that likes to exhaust every single dialogue option, and this game is very aware of that choice. Initially I found it a bit punishing, talking to a seemingly insignificant npc would lead to an hour long conversation, but once I got used to it I was like a kid in a candy store. The only reason I don't give this game a perfect score is because of the game system struggling with the sheer colossal scope of it sometimes. I'd occasionally hear one piece of spoken dialogue when another was on screen, the pathfinding can often be a bit obtuse and frustrating given the isometric view. Aside from that this is definitely a game for the ages.

A really unique and creative game that often gets in its own way. Where it really shines is the dialogue and character interactions, each world had something unique in store to separate it from the rest. Whether this be unique world building or what I would loosely describe as an “unexpected gaming situation” to avoid any direct spoilers. Although while speeding through the second half of the game I found a lot of the mediocre platforming and backtracking kept me from the parts that I truly admire about this game. One of its biggest faults is there’s a handful of parts where you need to trace your steps and go through multiple doors and platforms just to find specific items to bring all the way back. Because of how zoomed in the screen is along with everything in those levels looking exactly the same it quickly got very frustrating. Would have loved to play more, but most of the post game challenges is do X thing many many times

Genuinely one of the best handheld gaming experiences I’ve had. What it is is very simple in concept, but every aspect is firing on all cylinders. Stellar graphics, especially for the GBC. Crazy tight gameplay, feels super satisfying and every win and lost feels justified. The rpg element is very barebones, which helps to not bog you down with useless details that would get in the way of the fast gameplay. The dialogue is fun and the characters are quirky with unique designs. There’s also a lot to chew on, many mini games and two full campaigns. Would recommend this to anyone with a device that can play it.

Very lovely little game. The graphics/characters/music all work flawlessly together to make a very cozy and lush world to romp around in. At first the gameplay loop and controls felt a little clunky, but as I unlocked more upgrades and parts of the towns everything started to click into place and became a lot more enjoyable as it went on. There are a couple aspects that leave a bit more to be desired, especially the barebones non essential npc dialogue and lack of diverse chores. This game felt a bit longer than it actually was, but I mean that in a good way. Loved getting to know each of the towns and remember the layouts.

Really clever game with a lot of personality packed into every molecule. It feels like playing one of those gross early 2000s kids cartoons with really eccentric character designs and color palettes. This game is gross to look at in the best way possible. All of the mind level mechanics are super interesting on their own, but are insanely heightened by making it make sense for the character’s mental trauma, instead of just fun for fun’s sake. Especially play this game if you love hearing a looped mp3 of someone crying in the distance and occasionally bullshit 2000s era platforming, without those two this would easily be a 5/5