2/24 EDIT: I wanted to add an update to my feelings of this game as I'm revisiting it, something I never thought I would do, but the press about the DLC has me hopeful that I'll actually REALLY enjoy that, but because of how bad the PC port was I played on PS5 and need to get a character up to speed on PC. Anyway, my feelings remain the same. Such dissonance between the field design and legacy dungeons. If anything, I actually feel worse playing this game again because I forgot how much cool stuff IS in here but I only remember the vast swathes of boring, bland, repetitive catacombs and ruins. The one positive is all the stuff I said about the PC port is fixed, game no longer stutters and is buttery smooth, so that's good I guess. I still stand by DS2 being a better version of this game, and Lies of P is superior to this AND DS3. Trying to be optimistic for Shadow of the Erdtree.

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Alright, I know since I didn't give the game 5 stars that no one is actually going to pay attention to this review because this is the god game to save all video games, but that's fine. There's a lot of critique going around right now that is completely superficial or outright racist ("Japanese video games are bad wow when will they learn I hate anime and their culture and history and they should conform to our Western standards that we made and abandon anything they have accomplished!!") and I wanted to give critique that isn't any of that. This is a game I should love, but was ultimately disappointed by.

I guess I'll talk about the bad first. The PC performance is awful. It isn't a hardware issue, it is a software issue, DX12 takes a lot of the responsibility of performance off of the hardware driver and places it on the software using it. This is a double edged sword because while it can be very powerful, it has to be utilized correctly. Elden Ring does not accomplish this and is riddled with stuttering and loading lag as new assets get loaded in and compiled in real time. This is happening whether you notice it or not, so don't try and say "Well it's fine for me!" because it isn't, you just aren't sensitive to the frame hitching. I've seen footage of people who said it was fine and it was hitching. I've seen footage of speedrunners using autosplit and their time lagged as the game hitched. It's an issue, it exists, and if you are sensitive to framerates, as I am, it was unplayable.
So I already had a sour taste in my mouth for the game, but hey, I have a PS5, I picked it up there, and running the PS4 version ran at an incredibly smooth 60 FPS with no issues whatsoever (I guess this is a positive but it make more sense to include it here.)

Gameplay-wise, it's Dark Souls 3 again. This is kind of a bummer since I found DS3's combat to be a little too simple and every fight inevitably winds up being spamming R1 and rolling. Never really had to question my tactics, and anytime I tried using R2 or even power stancing and throwing in L1 and weapon arts, I would leave the encounter going "That would've been half as long if I just spammed R1." Balance-wise, it's kind of rough right now as well. Arcane, my initial build, is completely bugged and doesn't scale correctly so I was banging my head against the wall for the first 40 hours wondering why everything was so spongy. I unlocked respeccing and switched to a Dexterity build, which then wound up becoming nothing but R1 spam and later Hoarfrost Stomp spam because it was so overtuned.

Maybe my biggest gripe with the gameplay was the complete trivialization of multiplayer. I love the multiplayer aspect of these games. I love the tension of getting invaded while exploring a big, scary new area just as much as I love the thrill of invading someone else once I'm confident with my knowledge of the zone. I never got invaded once. It was only when I started invading for an NPC questline that I realized you only ever get invaded if you have other players co-op with you. Every invasion was 1v3 and invaders never get backup either. After about a dozen or so failures I promptly ignored the NPC and went on with the game. A complete waste of time to even have that feature in the game, and a true disappointment. PVP is the one time that R1 spam fails, and with so many fun and unique spells and weapons, I was crafting all these builds in my head only to realize that there was no point.

The open world is probably my biggest point of contention. It keeps getting so much praise as being wholly unique and vast, but it really isn't. Every catacombs is the same, every cave is the same, the same ruins are scattered throughout the entire map, the same enemies get used everywhere, etc. This in turn hurts the game's lore, as I really can't find myself getting invested when over half of the things I'm finding are just reused fights. The Crucible Knight Evergaol was the first fight where I really went "Wow okay this is gonna be good!" but after running into the 20th knight I just got so tired of it. It wasn't fun anymore and just felt like a chore. The constant reuse of fights and factions really made it hard for me to get invested in the game's lore, which is one of my favorite parts of Fromsoft's games. It's especially frustrating voicing this complaint when everyone just yells "The lore doesn't even matter you're just gonna watch it all in a YouTube video anyway!" because no, I'm not. I've never watched a Souls lore video, I just play the games and pay attention. They do such a good job writing these worlds and building up situations and stages that tell the story if you just explore and look around. This game simply feels like it was written by 2 people who didn't collaborate at all so they could just market a well-known name (🤔)

I don't have much else to say in terms of audio, but the music is really lackluster. For having the most tracks of any of Fromsoft's games, there were like, 3 that I can even remember. Most tracks are completely incidental or generic. Most of the voicework is also pretty weak (Rykard's VA was super sick though.)

Transitioning into the (few) things I legitimately enjoyed, the set pieces dungeons (Stormveil Castle, Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, a couple more that I won't spoil) were where the game truly shined. This was the world building I was talking about. They are some of my favorite stages in all of the Soulsborne titles. The game also has such a well realized aesthetic. The vistas are awe-inspiring and some of the creature design is top-notch.

I wasn't super hyped for this game so it's not like it just didn't meet any lofty ambitions that I set for it in my mind. I went in having only seen the reveal trailer from last year and the knowledge that I like Fromsoft's dark fantasy games. It's ironic that the game being touted as "too Japanese" is maybe the most Western game they've made and I think that it suffers greatly because of that. I clocked in at around 107 hours, with over half of that time spend running along cliff edges, going through cookie-cutter Skyrim dungeons, getting to the end and saying "Well, I'm sure the next one will be cool."

At the end of a Soulsborne game, I immediately fire up a new game to play it a totally different way with my knowledge of what is where and how to get it as fast as possible. But as the credits ran on Elden Ring, the only thing I was thinking of was installing a different game.

I don't want to be a hater, but this really wasn't it. I am a Sonic fan, I don't believe in the stupid ""Sonic Cycle"" and I think everyone just parrots their favorite youtuber's opinion instead of playing it for themself.

To start positive, here's what I liked:
1. Cyber Space stages - These were a blast. Weird, remixed versions of old stages reminiscent of Generations. Each one had a section that would immediately make you go "OH IT'S THIS STAGE!!" and it was really fun.
2. (Half of) the Soundtrack - The Cyber Space stage music kicks ass. They're either cheesy classic techno with soulful 90's style vocal lines or modern styles of electronic music, DnB, dubstep, future bass and they're all so catchy and groovy They perfectly capture the high energy, high speed essence of Sonic. The boss themes also excel at matching the vibe of Sonic, though these are more about the attitude. Heavy, chugging guitar riffs with the corniest AIM away message lyrics and screams. It's so good. They fully embraced the cringe and own it.
3. The concept of open world Sonic - Some of the islands really had me down for the idea of open world Sonic traversal. I could see why this is appealing, and as someone who normally hates big open "you can climb those mountains" style games, I was actually kind of loving it. Briefly. Then I played more than an hour.

The more time I spent with the game, the more the issues kept piling up. I can't really even concisely list them because they all sort of bleed into each other. I was just finding myself constantly asking "Why would you make it like this?"

Why am I punished for being Sonic?
Moving around goes from fun and novel to frustrating and annoying very quickly. Hitting a hill or random pebble in the environment too fast causes you to lose complete control of Sonic as you go into trick mode and can't move. You run over a boost pad that you couldn't see because of the draw-in and it sends you in the opposite direction and LOCKS YOU INTO A 2D SECTION THAT YOU CAN'T ESCAPE, forcing you to do a series of platforming that winds up placing you halfway across the map from where you were trying to go.

Why such a strong emphasis on combat?
For some reason there's a skill tree that I maxed out in the 2nd map and for the rest of the game the skill points were completely worthless, so I had no incentive to do extra platforming challenges or explore. The skill tree also contains hardly any movement skills and is essentially combat abilities. I do not care about combat in Sonic. This isn't why I play these games. When I get to a new island and I have to defeat world bosses to play the platforming stages I lose all desire to play the game. Certain enemies completely steal your camera control, even when you're running full speed away from them. Every single time it just caused me to run off a cliff and force me to retrace my steps to get back to where I was.

Why are there stat points?
I understand increasing health and attack. Easy upgrades that you can place in the map to incentivize exploration. And I was fine with these. The speed stat also makes sense, but why can you only increase it one level at a time? With a max level of 99, I was mashing A for a FULL TWENTY MINUTES last night, leveling my speed from 20 to 90. The health and power all upgrade at once, you turn in your heart and seeds once and you get levels for however many you had. Why not do the same for speed? And why even include the max ring stat? You get such a massive speed boost when you're at max rings, so why would I actively choose to carry more than 400? If I can carry 800 rings that just means I have to farm rings for twice as long to get my speed boost back. It's not only pointless, it's actively a DETRIMENT to players to level it up!

Why is there even a story?
I'm not expecting Citizen Kane from a Sonic game, but I had absolutely no clue what was happening at any point in the game. I don't need much. Forces was great, I knew why I was going to the stages I was going to, the writing was corny and funny and perfectly fit a Sonic game. With Frontiers, I felt like there was some sort of media tie-in that I missed, a comic series or youtube series explaining ANYTHING, and the game just expects that you already know it all! Like, they are saying things like "You know what the Koco are" and I'm sitting there going "no the fuck I don't lmao" I was actively watching and paying attention but at a point I broke and just alt tabbed and passively paid attention. I gave up. I don't care. Why am I supposed to feel something for Sage when she said 10 sentences and you don't even learn her name until the last 2 hours.

I don't know. If this was any other developer I would say that the sequel is probably going to kick ass. They could improve on the mountain of grievances I had and make the core concept really shine. But this is Sonic Team. They've been making the same mistakes for decades. I can only hope the next Sonic is back to stage based gameplay and the open-world aspect is dropped. But with the praise and sales this got, I'm not holding my breath.

I have played exactly 2 good non-Fromsoft developed soulslikes, this, and NOSE. Both of them realize what makes the formula work and takes whole-heatedly from them and aren't shy about it. Too often I feel people making a soulslike use it as a marketing point to get an audience but then none of what I would actually want from one is in the game. This was not the case in Lies of P. I don't know how else to say it, but the last couple Fromsoft titles have felt soulless to me. DS3 was "okay", Sekiro was fine but not for me, and Elden Ring was a massive disappointment. Lies of P has that soul.

I wanted a labyrinthine, brutal, fast-paced action RPG from the game that looked like legally ambiguous Bloodborne, and that's exactly what I got and then some. Everything felt right. The world, the movement, the sidequests, the gameplay loop, it was all perfect. The biggest difference came in the combat, but it wasn't necessarily a negative difference. I love the trick weapons in Bloodborne. It's my favorite iteration of combat Fromsoft has done in those games; fast, fluid, and combo centric. Lies of P does not have trick weapons (well, except for one) but it does offer it's own unique tools to play with. You're able to swap handles and blades on weapons, allowing you to use the quick, agile moveset of a dagger, for instance, but replace the normally short blade with a greatsword blade, slowing the moveset down a little, but retaining the relative agile nature the dagger while giving you much more range. Experimenting with this mechanic was a lot of fun, though I wound up using boss weapons for the majority of my playthrough. (I finished the game using the Two Dragons Sword, which honestly might be my favorite weapon in ANY Soulslike game, including Fromsoft ones.) You also get a Sekiro style robot arm with mulitple swappable abilities, though I didn't find myself using it all that much. I tried the gun arm which helped for stage play, and swapped to the grapple arm for boss fight mobility, but again, didn't really find a need to use it.

And the reason I didn't find a need to use it that often was because of what's maybe my favorite addition Lies of P added to the formula, the P Organ system, which acts as a sort of skill tree system for character progression. My least favorite part of a Souls game is how character building typically boils down to finding a weapon you like, then dumping stats into whatever it scales with the best, then dumping into stamina and HP. With the P Organ system I actively developed and evolved how I was playing the game based on what became available to me. I was happy with my Booster Glaive and dumping all my points into Technique because that's what I was used to. But when I saw some of the P Organ skills, like higher stagger when attacking from behind, or increased Fable (Lies of P's form of DS3 Weapon Arts) on perfect guard, I wanted to move into a more agile play style, swapping to lighter weapon to stay mobile and focusing on parries. I continued to adapt and change and wound up playing the game pretty differently every 8-10 hours or so. It was a lot of fun and super refreshing!

Most surprisingly of all, I didn't hate the story? Like I went in assuming the Pinocchio thing was mostly a gimmick but really loved the way they approached the subject of what makes us human and found it rather poignant at times. That being said, the story is also where most of my complaints regarding the game come in, namely, certain characters writing (pretty much just Gemini that cricket fuck) and a lot of the voicework which I found varied between subpar and outright distracting.

Oh, and slight aside that only really matters because of how bad Fromsoft has screwed up PC releases but Lies of P runs incredibly well with no configuration. Defaulted to high everything, ran at 144 with zero hitching or slowdown. I was thoroughly impressed.

I played this on Gamepass, which I normally don't like to do. I like to pay and own for games but I really thought this game was going to be bad and tried it mainly for a laugh. I absolutely plan to pick the game up on Steam later on because I want to 100% this. I want to play through with tons of builds, I want to see every outcome of every sidequest, see every ending, see every secret. And if the teaser at the end of the game ever comes to fruition I will be playing it day 1.

I was fully prepared to be a hater. Most times when people are like "they haven't made one of these games in forever so we're gonna make our own!" they kinda wind up falling completely flat on their face. Like the fanbase's idea of what makes a game special is so warped and different from what I would consider the actual game's strength. And no shade to Team Reptile, I love Lethal League, but going from a 2D pong game to a big open world 3D action/sports game seemed significantly harder to pull off.

But they did it! And they didn't just try to be Jet Set! And honestly, even though it's Jet Set aesthetically through and through, I think it's more akin gameplay wise to something like THUG! And I'm all for it!

The game oozes style, both visually and musically. Characters are animated, colors and bright, music is boppin. I have no notes honestly for what was done aesthetically. Like genuinely, the soundtrack speaks for itself. If I tried listing every song I loved I would just be copy-pasting the whole track listing. Actually no notes. Gameplay-wise, the zones are all varied and lively. New Amsterdam feels bustling with tons to do and explore. Mataan was my personal favorite zone, giving me big PSO Pioneer 2 vibes. Finding all of the nooks and crannies and getting to all the unlocks and bomb spots is a blast and I plan to go back and 100% everything. I especially love that all of the tags have artists directly credited in game. Graffiti is art!!

Game isn't perfect, though, and honestly, if I didn't prefer style over substance I think I would've been more severe in my criticism. The cutscenes are.... off. I don't know how else to describe it. They're janky and don't really flow and the music isn't really synched up as much as there's just music playing during them. They seem silent too, with little voice acting aside from grunts and barks, and now that I'm thinking about it, little to no sound effects? That might be the biggest issue. Actions in cutscenes feel like they lack weight. Camera cuts can be weird at points, but, again, small team going to a much more complex game than they've previously made so honestly I gave that a pass. It can be very jarring though.

My other biggest complaint is with combat in all forms. Cops in Jet Set Radio were invincible. You could spray them to get them off your tail long enough to bomb a spot that you needed or you could opt to just get to a location where they couldn't follow to shake them for a bit longer. Sure, some of the vehicles you could spray to put out of commission, but outside of the final boss, you could also just let them exist and avoid them. I like this use of cops more because it adds a lot to the routing you're doing mid-stage about how you can swerve and avoid and evade to get to where you need. (Maybe this was different in Future, I know Bomb Rush is more based on that than the original, but with Future being trapped on the original Xbox I haven't played it since I got rid of mine in, what, 17-ish years?) Obviously with Jet Set Radio being stage based however, that methodology wouldn't work for Bomb Rush, and for the normal cops, I didn't have a problem with them. I did as I would do in Jet Set and just skate and climb around them, doing a sick combo wallriding past where they could hit me and I felt cool. My issues arise with the multiple sections of forced combat. Beat up these cops, beat up these snipers, beat up this tank-bot, etc. I just don't think the game feels good when it comes to combat. It just feels like button mashing hoping you'll hit your enemy that you can't lock on to so when you do a sweep and they go flying you spend like 20 seconds trying to find them. It just isn't fun and not what the game excels at and I wish I wasn't forced to partake in a system that feels half-baked. The final boss was frustrating as well because for some reason they put you in a forced camera section? I don't understand the reasoning for this when you still have to swap between rails and are forced into freefall to land onto said rails that I struggled to land on because the camera it was locked to had NO sense of depth. Like I guess it was to try and show the scale of the boss? But the encounter would've been more enjoyable and just as awe-inspiring had I just been able to control the camera normally. Honestly, I probably would've even liked the fight. Instead the end of the game just leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

So even though I did find myself frequently going "this sucks" or "why did they do it like this" I still can't help but love the game. The parts they nailed, they NAILED. This game lives and dies by how hard it vibes, and it VIBES. If you look at any of my old reviews you'll see that strong style will ALWAYS trump substance for me and brother, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk IS style.

i want to preface this by saying that my knowledge of shmups is pretty marginal. i've never beaten one (until now) and only know the classics and a select few recent ones, but not in depth at all. i mention this because the only other review currently seems to make a lot of valid criticisms, but they also seem much more knowledgable about the genre! this is my opinion as a team ladybug fan, not a shmup head.

i get it now! i had a blast playing this. visually it's a delight, which is to be expected from team ladybug. it does feel a little cluttered at times, though i feel it's largely due to inexperience. i think attacks are largely choreographed well enough, i was just mistiming things. the sprites and models are all super sharp and crisp. the soundtrack is also a banger, high-octane and adrenaline pumping. what was most surprising was the story honestly. i didn't expect much from a retro style shmup story, but it definitely had me interested and popping off at moments, though it is a tad trope-y.

i played on normal and struggled a lot, largely towards the end of the first half and most of the second half, but it was never frustrating due to the generous checkpoints. a 1cc is probably not in my future lmao. i could definitely see a more experienced player breezing though it, as the absorb mechanic does seem super powerful if used well.

the game definitely has me wanting to finally dive into the classics i've seen and heard so much about. maybe then, after i'm a 1cc god i'll look back and think it's a little lacking, but it also got me started on the path to tackle an entire genre, so i have to give it props.

I've fully completed RoR1 twice, once in the original 2013 release and again several years later on the switch port. Didn't really follow RoRR announcments and I kind of expected it to be just a visual touch up and a new online system that wasn't a nightmare to deal with. But wow, I'm blown away. The environmental spritework is so gorgeous, there are tons of new items, encounters, a whole challenge mode full of custom maps and unique tasks, reworked survivors and even new ones. I'm super pumped to go through this whole game AGAIN. Way more than I expected.

This game is too good for how little I heard people talk about it. This game feels like a weird mid-PS2 release that became a cult classic.

I had no idea the farming was as in-depth as it is. I fully expected it to be Harvest Moon like, just hoeing 3x3 fields, planting seeds, watering each day. I had no idea you had to manually till, plant, and water the fields with such intensity and attentiveness. Each harvest had me excited to try what I'd learned in the scrolls I'd acquired that year to make the next harvest even better. The power surge you got after harvesting felt so good, every single time.

The combat doesn't need to be as good as it is. I don't know who decided to put DMC combat in their farming game but what a choice. Hitting huge combos feels good. Slicing through 20 enemies at a time is so fun. The varied amount of platforming and combat challenges offers so much to do so you never feel like you're just waiting around to harvest rice. They continue to unlock new mechanics and bonus missions to the end of the game and offers a hearty amount of post game as well. The music is super catchy and it looks pretty to boot. The PC port was surprisingly really good too.

It's not perfect. There were definitely some segments that had me really frustrated and angry. Mechanics not melding together well, bad level layout, poor mission objectives, the mid-game volcano event. But I'm still giving it 5 stars because it was rough around the edges in the perfect way. It truly feels like a forgotten PS2 title in all the right ways, even in being bad. More people should try this game out. It's something special.

Capcom truly did something exceptional here.

Street Fighter was in such a rough spot. SFV launched so badly, completely barebones and lacking features that are standard for the genre, horrible balance issues, and poor netcode. Even after Ono left and the new leadership managed to bring it to a pretty alright state (barring the prevalence of Luke) it still had that launch stench that no one wanted anything to do with it.

The team learned well from that experience, and Street Fighter 6 has launched as one of the most feature rich, well polished fighting games of all time. A diverse cast of fighters including incredible redesigns of the classic world warriors along with a whole host of new faces that are realized so, so well. A massive amount of content and things to do, both offline and on. A hip hop street aesthetic hearkening back to the arcade days of the 90s. They managed to do what fighting game devs have been trying to do for the past decade and managed to design a game that is wholly welcoming and easy to pick up for newcomers while offering a tremendous amount of depth and tech for the hardcore.

The main menu has you select between 3 main modes:
World Tour, a single player open world mode where you create your own avatar, train under the iconic cast to learn their moves, converse and get to know them like it's a Persona social link, and put together a wild Frankenstein of a fighter. It's pretty fun, I don't really have too much to say about it. Once I finish it and grind out the zenny for everyone's costume 2 I don't really see me coming back to it that often, but I love that it's here at all. Before netplay became a thing and when I was living in the sticks, I pretty much only played fighting games offline, by myself. So if I could have had a mode this fleshed out back in the 90's I would've been in pure bliss.

Battle Hub is the online lobby, where you take your World Tour avatar online to play matches at arcade cabinets, participate in tournaments, tackle "Extreme Battles" with goofy Smash Bros style hazards and rulesets that can level the playing field between players of wildly different skill levels, and even play classic Capcom arcade games in the Retro Corner for a place on the leaderboards. Sometimes I just hop in to go look at the eldritch horrors people have turned their avatar into. It's a functional lobby system which I guess has to be stated after Guilty Gear Strive's HUGE fuck up.

Fighting Ground is the final mode that kind of has a bit of everything in it. There's Arcade Mode, which gets you a little bit of character story for each fighter. There's local play, obviously, but you can also local play the same goofy modes that are in the Battle Hub too. You can set up custom rooms, which are the best I've ever seen in any fighting game that allow you to set up 4 cabinets how you want with any of the game modes and even training mode, and anyone in the room can spectate any of them. And if you don't want to load up Battle Hub you can queue for ranked or casual matches from here too.

There's one other section of Fighting Ground that I wanted to talk about in it's own part because SF6 contains what is possibly the greatest training mode and tutorial section of ANY fighting game ever made. In addition to a basic system tutorial they have character specific guides that are written as if the character themselves are explaining things as a nice touch, but the guides themselves are excellent! They do more than just teach how to do the characters special move inputs, but more importantly, WHEN and WHY to use them. They really try to layout a super basic game plan for them so that you can pick up a new character and have SOME semblance of what to do with them. Then in the training mode they give you so much useful information displayed in an easily digestible way. They explain frame data and show it to you in such a clean and efficient way that it's easy for ANYONE to understand. They offer several drill type exercises to help learn super fundamental aspects of fighting games.

The star of the battle system is the Drive Gauge, allowing full access to universal offensive, defensive, and movement focused abilities. For casuals, they allow you to press your EX moves (now called OD in what I have to assume is a full embracing of FGC slang) to see big flashy damage and the Drive Impact, similar in use to Focus Attack from SFIV, allowing for an easy "get off me" button that's simple and easy to throw out. And for higher level play, where DI is too committal and punishable, you get Drive Parry a la SFIII as well as Drive Rush which lets you gain advantage on ANY special cancellable normal. The mental stack is massive but I look forward to managing to handle it better over time.

It's not totally perfect though and I do have a couple qualms. The music is really hit or miss. Some themes are pretty good and I like the dynamic implementation of them, how they weave from round start to low health to the next round. Ryu and Jamies theme really stand out, but a lot of them are stinkers. I play Marisa so I've heard her theme the most and it's so, so, SO bad. Graphically the game is pretty ugly too. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's easily the best a mainline Street Fighter has ever looked in 3D, but I kind of wish they'd dropped PS4 like Tekken 8 and MK1 did. Like I look at SF6 like "wow this looks so slick" because I'm used to SFIV and V, but my friends who aren't look at SF6 and go "wow why does it look so ugly" and honestly? I get it. This is also going to be the most monetized SF has been, with both character passes and they're about to launch a battle pass, so who knows how that will end up. I hope it's not too bad but only time will tell.

Oh, I also forgot to talk about the whole Modern Controls thing. They're really pushing Modern as a selling point. Essentially it turns SF into an anime style control scheme where you only have 3 attack buttons instead of 6 and then a special button to get all of your specials, which are no longer motion inputs and instead Smash Bros style where it's just a single direction. The downside is you lose about 20% damage from them and you also lose access to your whole kit and only what they mapped to the Modern combos. I don't have an opinion on it because I haven't used it. With years of SF legacy using Modern is much harder than Classic for me. But if you've never really played them much you can hop on and skip the execution barrier somewhat, though I feel you'll be hampered in the long run.

This wound up being way longer than I expected. I had a lot to say. Last night, 62 hours after I first launched the game, I had 28 hours in it. It is truly so much fun. The team has a clear reverence and love of Street Fighter, Capcom's legacy, and the fighting game community in general. I will not stop playing this game for a very long time. I cannot wait to see what this team does over the game's lifespan.

There's never been a better time.
Get into fighting games.

hell of a game, or i guess i should say heaven of a game?

if you have the time trial/arcade hi score/speedrun mindset this game will possess you. i cannot count how many times i looked down at my phone to realize that i had been grinding the same 40 seconds for 4 hours to try and shave tenths of a second of a time. the abilities you get are fun. the stages are fun. moving is fun. it's incredible. i was worried about certain aspects involving aiming, as i'm not much of a crack shot at FPS, but you NEVER have to shoot at moving targets. all targets are stationary, so i was able to dial in my muscle memory and just replicate super tight runs through that.

the story is boring and the writing sucks but it doesn't matter. you can fast forward all of it if you want. the art direction is vivid and striking, the machine girl soundtrack is 100% certified bangers and is such an inspired choice and makes the grind so easy to lose yourself in. i'm not gonna stop playing this.