It's not as daunting as a you for think for a Metroidvania without a map. The game is split up into sections where you eliminate all of the Metroids in an area and then move on to the next. The game really doesn't ask you to backtrack to the extent that Super Metroid or Dread might. This is probably the Metroidvania where I had to consult the internet the least, although the best method ro defeat the final boss is fairly obtuse. That said you should probably play it within the span of a weekend or so, rather than just pick it up and finish it later, so you'll have a stronger mental map.

To give this game a bit more criticism, I wish there was more than 2 area themes. I implied it's easy to find your way to the end, and it is, but some different tunes would be appreciated . Still this is one of the best Gameboy games in my opinion and definitely has all the Super Metroid vides down( as much as you can given the vastly weaker hardware).

This game is pretty good. It reminds me of the Retro Studio Donkey Kong games as weird of a comparison that might be, mostly with how its presents it content, with a big world map and optional paths and a time trial mode once you've beaten a level.

The games main drill is pretty fun to use and most levels have some sort of gimmick to them to keep each one feel unique, for better or for worse. Generally any power-up that took over your main drill attack tended to be much slower going and not as fun. There's also not as many levels as I would have liked. This game follows the basic platform game formula of bunch of levels, boss, next world and for some reason it only has 4 worlds? I would have liked one more at least, 5 feels rounded out nicely.

I've also encountered a few glitches on the Switch version, nothing major, but worth mentioning.
-I've been pretty frequently been placed on the wrong level after finishing it
-The was a breakable object in a level that just wasn't breaking properly until I restarted it.
- The final boss music just cut out in between attempts and I was just trying to fight it in creepy silence.

I haven't done all the optional content yet, but the time trials have medals to go for which is pretty cool, and each world seems to have at least one optional level per world. Definitly give it a try if you are fond of 2d platformers.

I’m very glad I played Sacred Stones before this one, because Jesus, it's unbelievable how 2 games made with the same engine are vastly different ends of the quality spectrum. It's one of the most punishing games I’ve ever played, and I don’t even know if I can bring myself to finish it. I’ve been putting off playing Kaga’s FE games because I find them to be either ancient or exceptionally daunting, but they are probably going to be a breath of fresh air compared to the video game equivalent to waterboarding myself.

I apologize for the scathing opening paragraph. Let me calm down a little. As I’ve said this is one of the most punishing games I’ve ever played and it goes without saying that this is one of the hardest as well, at least in the Fire Emblem franchise. I think the previous holder of that, from the FE games I played, was Engage, partially because I started on Hard mode. But Engage had many ways of making its difficulty interesting, such as occasionally having two chapters strung together and you're forced to use the same team for both, and taking away all of your Emblem rings halfway through the game, as well as other map gimmicks. Binding Blade has somewhat interesting ideas, locking the true ending behind extra Gaiden chapters, and not allowing you to shop in between chapters(which I realize is something older FE games probably did, but as discussed, I haven't played them), but then just puts you in large, foggy maps with endlessly spawning Wyverns and mages with long range Berserk staffs. I always enjoy some Fire Emblem gameplay, but this can be a rather miserable experience at times, especially without a guide.

I said “opening paragraph” like I had more than 2 paragraphs to say about it. If you’re new to the Fire Emblem series, don’t start with this one. I;d be really surprised if I enjoy any of them less than it.

Edit: Did actually finish it. The last few chapters are considerable less painful than the rest of the game, althoughstill a bit annoying. Decided to give it a little more credit than I did because of that, and since I probably didn't play this game completely optimally, although it's still my least favorite Fire Emblem that I played so far.

Decided to continue my Mario platformer marathon, that I've started when Wonder got announced and I just kinda quit half way through, and I very much enjoy playing this over the original, despite its control problems. I like the extra content it adds, the extra mission don't feel too out of place, at least the star switch ones. The Silver stars can get annoying and its a bit weird they don't show up unless you select the mission. I mean, the extra characters don't add much, since you pretty much always want to be Mario, but it adds some more exploration and permanent power ups for doing so, which is appreciated. The addition of the balloon and owl made some pretty bs cannon based missions actually tolerable now, and i think for the most part this game is easier than the original in general, which is a positive.

I mean its still not perfect. Its not too controversial to say that Mario 64's level design peaks pretty early, and the camera still is rather annoying. And the added star where you have to get 8 glowing bunnies sucks,as from what I've seen the spawn rates completely RNG. But this is the closest thing to a direct Mario 64 sequel we are going to get, and I appreciate it for that.

(This review contains mild spoilers.)

When the original Like A Dragon (Y7) came around I had only played Yakuza 0 at that point, maybe a bit of Kiwami as well. While I thought the combat of the game was great, the turn based combat or this new game appealed to me quite a bit more, and the fact that it starred a new protagonist, one who loved these sorts of games as much as I did, made it easy to jump in and skip a few entries just to see this new thing. I absolutely fell in love with it. While it absolutely had its flaws, I loved Ichiban and his party members, the story was amazing, Yokohama had so much to do in it, they really went all out. I believe Sega claimed they would go back to action if turn based failed but honestly I’m not sure how they would’ve done that without retconning the game out of existence. That’s just how hard they went. Needless to say this is a game I’ve been waiting for since finishing Yakuza 7. I couldn’t wait to see how they improved everything I loved about the first entry. And well …. It's probably the most flawed 10/10 game I ever played, but it's still a 10/10. A lot of the game is better than the first, but there are a lot of what I consider to be rather questionable decisions that I would like to go over, despite very much enjoying the game.

Let’s talk about the story first, since I’m probably going to ramble on and on about the gameplay. Probably the most obvious downgrade from the original. It's still decent, especially during the early chapters, but I think after Kiryu goes to Yokohama, it gets a bit fragmented. Like 2 puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together, unlike other Yakuza games with multiple protagonists, namely 0. The 2 sides of the story don’t seem to have much in common outside of both antagonists being in cahoots with each other. I don’t think Kiryu’s adventure in Japan added to the overall narrative, even if I do enjoy some of the story stuff he goes through. There are a lot of solid moments here, and for the sake of spoilers, I’ll let you experience them for yourself. All I’ll say is I really enjoy some of the new party members and characters. One final note, I like the idea of the Hawaiian antagonist. Very appropriate for a “JRPG but in the real world” type of game, the execution just wasn’t the greatest.

The turn based combat here is massively improved from the previous game. I didn’t think too much of being able to move your character while selecting skills but it adds quite a bit, mostly during basic attacks. You can get a lot of bonuses from them, such as proximity bonuses, back attacks, teaming up, and MP restoration, some of which were absent from the previous game. I think the jobs here are much better balanced, with pierce and lightning skills having much wider availability, although that's something I have to check. Another major thing they changed is skill inheritance. Before certain jobs just had skills you could inherit once you’ve earned them, now once your bond with another character has reached a certain point (a bond that continues risings even if you don’t talk to them at the bar now, which is great), you can inherit almost any skill you’ve earned from any job. Admittedly I would prefer them revisit the 7 system a little bit so the inherited skills are different for each character, just for some more differences between them outside of stats and default job, but this level of customization is also welcome. Grinding is also much better thanks to the improved dungeons from 7. Randomly generated floor, with lots of useful equipment and its own shop system, while having multiple tiers. It also has its own dedicated battle music. That alone makes it better than 7s pitiful excuse.

They’ve also added quite a few new mini games to Hawaii as well. Crazy Delivery was really fun. I moderately enjoyed Miss Match, if only for the rather humorous outcomes on the lowest subscription tier, but the major stars for me are obviously the Sujimon League and Dondoko Island. Yeah, I’m like the only guy who likes Sujimon, apparently. While the battles can be a little shallow, I really wanted to collect them all from raids, and find really strong ones. I even have a few Kiwami ones.Maybe it's a bit of a simple pleasure, but I find it pleasurable nonetheless. Makes me want to play a Pokemon game after this. Dondoko Island seems to be far less controversial and it's similarly a very cool take on the development sim RPG genre. This game has all kinds, traditional, monster catching and development RPGs. I also spent a lot of my 90 hour playtime here. One of my favorite things about RGG as a development studio is how much effort goes into these alternative game modes and minigames, and Dondoko Island is probably the best example of this yet, it's practically its own game and I love how easy it is to make the island your own. I have some qualms with it, of course, but it's an astonishing sidemode to this game.

And here’s where my problems with the gameplay lie. Notice how I only talked about the activities available in Hawaii. Notice again how I mentioned earlier Kiryu goes to Yokohama. If you haven’t pieced together my problem yet, there’s large chunks of the game's story where you are completely locked out of its best content. Yokohama had all of its activities removed from Y7, with Kiryu not even getting a single substory. Yokohama’s unique content consists of Can Quest, the only minigame from Y7 to survive the apparent apocalypse, and Kiryu’s bucket list, mostly consisting of going to a location and Kiryu going “damn….. Memories”. Occasionally He’ll have fully voiced talks with more important characters and Date calls in with characters from previous games he can meet. These tend to be more interesting but nowhere near what's on offer in the states. I didn;t find this to be too big of a deal, realistically you're only forced to spend a quarter of the game here if that. I just would like some sort of equivalent unique activity for Kiryu.

I have a lot of issues with this game if you couldn’t already tell, but honestly I still really enjoy my time with it, and I absolutely recommend it, although maybe play 7 first. While I'm somewhat on the fence on which game is better, 7 is much more consistent. Is this my game of the year? So far, but Unicorn Overlords and The Thousand Year Door Remake may give this a run for its money. Yakuza/Like A Dragon continues to be one of my favorite franchises, but hopefully my darling Ichiban can have at least one more game to himself. I think he’s got that much in him at least.

Judgment feels like another one of those highly praised games where I can get behind some of it, but ten outta ten is a bit high. First I will say, I very much enjoy the combat here. It's been a while since I played Kiwami 2 and I don’t own 6, so I dont have much Dragon Engine Brawler combat experience but this feels very satisfying to pull off eloquent combots with both styles. Much better than non DE-Yakuza.
Yagami’s a pretty entertaining character. I think most of the cast here is at the very least decent. I guess my main issue is with the story. Not that it isn’t a bad story, it just doesn’t feel about anyone, you know. I don’t typically enjoy comparisons, but I think Ichiban’s first outing was much more about him than this story is about its main characters. Heck I’m currently playing Yakuza 4, and despite having way more negative things to say about it at the moment, this is one aspect it also gets right about its new characters. I understand Detective Stories are pretty rarely about the Detective but give me something. To give the story praise, I felt there were much stronger characters I was able to latch onto more, namely Okubo, despite their absence from most of the story. A lot of the villains were also tragic, but also they were all tragic in the same kinda way. Most of this didn't come until the end, but the overall mystery I felt was strong enough to carry a somewhat weak early game.
Optional shit review: RGG games normally thrive with this. All of the standard minigames are here and they’re all fun and good. There were three new ones I kinda got attached to but all of them have some negative aspect to them. I liked Kamuro of the Dead. I think my main issue with that is that I wish motion controls were an option, if you are playing with a controller. It's meant to mimic the light gun games you would play in the arcade, where you move the gun around to aim so I don’t think my request is too outlandish. Paradise VR is a good way to get money, and I enjoyed the occasional battle and lockpick challenge they offer but it's admittedly pretty shallow. The main thing I liked is the Drone Race, which is pretty exhilarating, but a lot of the content here is based on customizing your drone and not really on the tracks as there are only 5 of them. The reverse versions switch around the boost panels but I would like some more layouts. Also the difficulty curve is perhaps steeper than it needs to be. Side cases are mostly an excuse to do more detective stuff that you could do in the main story, like searching and deciding(fine), taking some pictures(fine) and trailing missions(ass). I think friendship is a cool mechanic here, especially for some of the more unique friends, like Ryan. I like the benefits they give you even if they aren't mechanically deep. Romance is pretty confusing here. I feel like the girl is always upset at the end of our date and then we just end up together anyway. It’s kinda a waste of time.
Sorry I got a bit rambly at the end. In conclusion, Judgment is a good RGG game, just not their best. That comes out next week(hopefully).