A beautifully animated game, easily my favourite Zelda to look. I love the deep blues, reds and greens, the cute animated Link and characters, the fun, bouncy and rousing music. I love sailing the seas, even if it can become repetitive. The controls still feel great too, a vast improvement on the N64 Zelda games.

Parts of this game do feel a bit unfinished, and it does simplify the gameplay at times. It's very satisfying to play, and it's understandable as they are aiming at a younger audience, but it does mean that I have less memorable gameplay moments. What makes this game most enjoyable is its setting and art, the joy of exploration and the fun of it all.

I liked how this game takes a lot of influence from the Last of Us. I find that type of game to be a kind of comfort food, easy to digest and enjoy. The main focus is on the characters and grounding you in the journey they go on.

It's a stunning game. I loved the medieval architecture, the gorgeous sky and weather effects, the forest and outdoors. The soundtrack is also excellent, both at driving home the tension of the stealth sections, and adding life to the more emotional and quiet moments. The game effectively puts you in Amicia and Hugo's shoes and adds a decent cast of characters around them. I liked how they focused on a younger cast, which helped drive home the vulnerability against the soldiers and the rats.

The rats are a fun and effectively nasty enemy, and I liked the supernatural hordes of them, but it goes a bit too far by the ending. I'm not against the story going the way it did, but I don't think it did it well. Thankfully it was only really the ending that bothered me.

The gameplay is simple and occasionally clunky. I enjoyed the more stealth/puzzle aspects to it, but it fell apart whenever you're forced into action. Overall I liked this game despite some flaws.

I was relatively late to this, playing it in 2020 after finishing Bloodborne and Sekiro previously. Previously I'd been put off by what I thought was a fairly slow and drab world. I knew people raved about the game but wasn't sure if other From Software games had surpassed it.

Thankfully I found myself fall in love with this game. It's probably the least consistent From game I've played. Some areas and bosses are pretty painful and tedious. What sets it apart is the incredible world and level design. Everything connects together so beautifully, particularly before you get fast travel. You're always aware of where you are in relation to the world, in relation to safety, the different places and characters you meet.

It's hard to explain, but the story, the levels, everything just clicks into place. It's got some low points, it's a little rough in parts, but its still an unforgettable experience, well worth getting over some of the humps to experience.

Not sure why I waited so long to play this. It’s great having a new 3D Mario with plenty of room to roam. Well not that new now I suppose… Mario always feels great to control but here he’s just fantastic. The hat is so great, it fits in perfectly with a 3D platformer, both to throw at enemies instead of jumping on them, and as a makeshift platform. Possessing things was more fun than I was expecting too. I was a bit worried it would feel gimmicky, but it fits into the standard exploring nicely. Hop in, get a new style of character to play in, hop out. I particularly liked the octopus, the birds with the sharp beaks, the elongating caterpillars, and bullet bills. Who hasn’t wanted to be a bullet bill?

The worlds are mostly excellent. I didn’t love the food world or the sort of jungle one, found them a bit garish and constrained. Bowser’s castle was mildly disappointing too, being so segmented. But the rest I loved. The waterfall world with its surf rock tune was excellent, I also liked bouncing around the snow world and the beach world. New Donk City is of course the standout, and it’s been long enough that I’d forgotten about the celebration festival, so that was a nice surprise, and put a big smile on my face.

Once I beat the story I put it down with the intention of coming back and picking up the remaining moons I needed. However now a few months have gone by, I’m not sure that’ll ever happen. The ship tells me I have over 100 still to get, and the thought exhausts me. It’s not really the time commitment, as I imagine it would take me less than getting half that many stars in another game. It’s the collectathon nature of it. The more open structure was really enjoyable while I was progressing the story, but feels like a chore now that’s all I have left. I’d rather just put the game down at a good stopping point for me rather than force it, at least for the near future.

I had a great time with this one, and it was a nice change of pace after screaming Necromorphs. It eases you in nicely without being too handholdy. Finding the rhythm of combat took a few attempts, but ended up being easier than expected. I found it easiest to feel the beat naturally. Because the action moves in rhythm regardless, you can pick it up where you left off if you miss it, without anything screeching to a halt. Simple combos, dodges, parries, enemy attacks all sync together.

It’s very satisfying when done right. It finds a nice balance of 'easy to pick up, hard too master'. Not so technical or demanding as to feel punishing, but with a decent skill ceiling for players who want to push for high scores on harder difficulties. There’s a lot of great feedback in terms of sound and visual cues, controller rumble. It did get a little too hectic and hard to read a few times, but not very many.

I also enjoyed the characters and the humour. It’s all very familiar, but I found it more comforting than irritating. I laughed a fair bit, and the second half of the game, once you have all your abilities, things really pick up and you get some great levels, bosses and songs to kick on to. I had a big smile on my face for a lot of it, particularly the second to last level and boss. There’s plenty of opportunity for replays too so I’m going to dive back in.

Really well designed game. It never says a word and only gives you one button to interact. But through pure visual language and smart design, I was always able to intuit what the game was asking of me. This really pays off in the last quarter or so of the game, where all of the concepts come together in very fun and satisfying ways. It’s a very mechanical feeling game, lots of moving parts, pipes and buttons. At times very abstract. The sound design and soundtrack also help provide atmosphere, with some synthy sci-fi sounds, and some nice rising, inspirational “you get it” music as you start to solve a puzzle. I’d still place it behind Inside overall, but it’s a more mechanically enjoyable game, just really satisified that part of my brain.

A brilliant game to fire up in an idle moment and go on an adventure. Takes a few tries to get to grips with all its systems, but once it clicks, there's an addictive quality to building your ship and handling what's thrown at it.

This game is often at its best when things go wrong. When the enemy is catching up with you, everything's on fire, and you've got two crewmates running around doing the jobs of four. The ability for each journey to be different is part of what makes it special.

I also enjoyed the balance between real time action and the ability to pause and take stock. It allows you to assess increasingly chaotic situations and have time to make decisions. The soundtrack is also excellent. I often listen to it in my own time, as it has a great balance between tunes that evoke the fun and exploration side of a wide open galaxy, and the increasing intensity of battle.

A beautiful game, but it hasn't stuck with me much since I played it. Its sunsets and mountain passes are wonderful. It evokes a sense of isolation and peacefulness, somewhere its characters come to get back to nature, and to escape their problems.

There's a nice relationship between the two main characters, and it's fun having the distance of the walky talkies and how that affects their dynamic. But the story fell flat for me in a way that it doesn't justify. It's not bad, it might resonate with others more, it just didn't with me.

This was my first time playing a From Software game. The unforgiving nature and the lack of sign posting draws you in immediately. The setting of Yharnam is incredibly well realised, making it one of the more believable and immersive worlds I've played in a game, despite its increasingly horrifying and bizarre nature.

The game draws you in beautifully to uncovering its mysteries, deeper into a tangled web of horrors, all in a world with discrete levels that overlap and tangle into each other in a believable and engaging way. Monsters straddle the line between horrifying and absurd, and the creativity in this worlds gothic cities, tangled woods and beyond is very impressive.

I love how it draws you into being aggressive, giving you almost entirely offensive tools. There's a real sense of progression in running away from enemies and bosses with tail tucked between your legs, to finally feeling confident enough to face them head on.

I admire this game a lot, and I really enjoyed my time with it. I find it hard to say I love it though, purely because I'm not a big fan of being scared. Yharnam's an incredible world but it's one I have to force myself to go back to. I'm always glad I did though.