I bought Persona 5 a couple of days before Royal was announced. Thus, post-announcement, I said I'd play it prior to Royal being released. "I wouldn't be wasting my money then," I lied, to myself, a liar.

I did eventually start playing 5 but ended up buying 5R in the midst regardless. I think 5R will likely improve on a lot of the problems I had with 5 and it was my mistake for being a complete clown.

So. Uh. Play 5R instead of this.

This is the game where your friends will complain about how fast you read. That's because the narrative is actually interesting.

Primarily I don't like how I have to click to move, a problem that is somewhat solved by playing with a controller. Yet, playing with a controller introduces its own problems! Oh, Disco Elysium, you clown of a game patchworked together to be a functioning interactive piece of literature, you.

It's pretty good. It's regarded as a masterpiece for people more fond of narratives, which is very well deserved.

I haven't finished Shield yet. I probably will and then won't pick it up again, a feat it does not share with other Pokemon games.

It took, by my count, 3 separate restarts for the game to finally stick. Most of my enjoyment thus far has been unintentionally breaking the game by being way, way too overpowered, because while you can't catch Pokemon over a certain level... that doesn't affect your team. You can level up your own Pokemon as much as you want, just not 'overleveled' Wild Pokemon and ones that were traded to you.

There's something to be said about games that are only enjoyable by... by, well, playing it in a way the developers absolutely did not intend, though! 'So-bad-it's-good,' sort of thing.

Hey, it's the video game that made me hate game reviewers! Maybe I should give it a 5.0 on that merit alone...

'Shelved' is inaccurate - more or less I have games that my friends want me to play and Death Stranding is not one of them. Soon, we will be reunited.

Don't believe anything you read. Both the good and the bad bits. If you're interested, play it. If what you've heard is enough to scare you, try watching a commentary playthrough instead. One of these will get you interested in Death Stranding, even if it's morbid curiosity.

I have night terrors thinking about Hades' development. This isn't a devoted project anymore. Love is an understatement.

You can really see that love in its combat, its artwork, the characters, the narration, so on and so forth. Getting to the end of Hades is intentionally nigh impossible. Either you'll get bored first or you'll be satisfied.

I adore the combat. All my friends don't understand how I can finish a run within 15-20 mins, and really, that can't be that abnormal. Right? I'm not good at video games, I know I'm not.

My very controversial opinion is that the story suuuuuuuuuuucks. Many people like it, so I'm quite clearly in the minority here, so don't let that color your perspective. 's just not for me and it was a pretty major thorn in my side.

The way people talk about Automata's themes, you'd get the impression that it's a 5-hour long discretion about the human condition, not ELI5 existentialism.

Either that or you enjoy the not-child-friendly fan creations more. Hey, power to you.

Personally, I liked Automata for what it was worth. I did not enjoy some of the walking sections and playtime is vital to me. Normally the latter is more of a serious problem for me - if I can't sink 150 plus hours into a video game, no thanks. But, Automata doesn't overstay its welcome and it makes the most out of the 40something hours it gives. Keep in mind that I'm a fairly hardcore completionist, too, and that was about the time I spent.

If there was a 4.75 option, I'd take that. DRV3 isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but to call my enjoyment a mere 4.5 is insulting to both of us.

I don't want to look at my total hours played, alright? And I've sunk nearly 300 hours into a certain open-world game I have a love-hate relationship with.

Getting into 'why' DRV3 isn't a perfect visual novel is the spoiler equivalent of walking into a hornet's nest where you are not just wielding a baseball bat, but the baseball bat is 1. unconsentingly automated 2. keeps vocally suggesting for the hornets to fight it and 3. is impeded onto your shirt, so let's not.

You're either gonna love or hate this game. Take it or leave it. The mechanics are fine outside of how finnicky and unwieldly perjury is, the story is... well, that's why everyone's fighting, isn't it? Give it a shot - if you don't like it, there's two other DR games that may be more up your alley.

Before 'Hades made me like roguelikes' there was the Rescue Team and Explorers Of games. Then Gates to Infinity happened...

Let's not dwell on that, though. Most people's fond memories are of the Rescue Team games but I luckily have superior taste and prefer Explorers. If you, too, have excellent taste that is commonly misunderstood by all of your friends & underappreciated by all, then you also acknowledge that this is a fantastic game. One of the greats.

Or you don't, which means that you prefer mainline Pokemon games.

Every summer I try to replay Tales of Symphonia. This is a dangerous thing because always results in an immeasurable timesink.

Tales of Symphonia isn't necessarily the most recognizable Tales Of game anymore - Zestiria and Abyss might want to discuss that honor - but it used to be! It's definitely a relic and it's aged more akin to milk than wine.

Nevertheless, Symphonia is the game that made me love video games. Real-time combat, for a start. I adore turn-based RPGs as much as the next guy, but Symphonia is why combat like Nier:Automata and Hades' came second-nature to me.

While calling its plot 'campy' would be an understatement, that cheesiness is also something I'm quite fond of. If you like real-time action games and aren't the type of person to complain about characterization inanity... do I have a poorly aged game for you!

Horizon's biggest mistake is that it launched the same year as Breath of the Wild.

No new IP could ever compete with Nintendo; much less Nintendo handing Zelda's reigns to its playerbase. This has resulted in HZD leaving a sour taste in many's mouths, because who would ever want to play HZD when BOTW is right there?

Me. I do, I'm the insane hypothetical person. HZD's personally the better game because I like plot and I like consequences to my actions. Don't misunderstand; I enjoy both games for each of their own unique merits but I prefer influenceable questlines and a plotline.

(Not to mention, there isn't some arbitrary limit over arrow count.)

I could go on for far too long about both HZD's negatives and its positives, but if you aren't repelled by more a story-driven game and you like open-world games: give HZD a chance.

BELATED AS HELL EDIT: I was re-reading my reviews and my snarky arrow limit comment made me, the very writer of this review, annoyed. What I should've said was 'you can craft arrows and can technically have enough materials to have a truly unusable amount of arrows,' because there is a faux limit. In practice it isn't really there, but nonetheless.