I am incredibly disappointed in my personal decision, back in 2020, to feed into the outrage of the leaks and ignore the game at launch, despite my initial excitement. While far from perfect and fails to match the cohesion of the first title, the mostly successful narrative risks Part II decides to take can only be understood through a proper playthrough.

I find myself grappling with the narrative and structure more than anything given how fine-tuned and excellent the gameplay experience itself is. There seems to be a collective tired attitude towards the onslaught of cinematic Sony titles (rightfully so), but Naughty Dog is undeniably the peak of this direction. A realistic level of fluidity and weight to the combat and high attention to detail pairs well with the unavoidable insertion of cutscenes. Similar to the first, there's a toll to your actions as a player that would not have the same effect in any other medium, even if the delivery is awkward at moments (quick-time events, for example).

To summarize the problem, the narrative's delivery is largely disrupted by the structure, mainly boiling down to Ellie's section in Seattle. The game's opening is shocking yet effective, but the following 10+ hours feel poorly utilized. I appreciate the growing severity in her kills that leads the player to question the necessity behind enacting revenge, but your days in Seattle are mostly uneventful and incredibly repetitive. Ellie is forced to follow along the clues Tommy have left behind, with very little else happening in between. The flashback sequences, which are incredibly meaningful and effective in piecing together the moments between the two games, feel like a direct acknowledgment of the slowness, as very little plot progression is made to entertain the player in between. The enjoyable gameplay sequences keep the player stringing along, but even this aspect had its lower moments; Mainly, the open area segment when Ellie first arrives in Seattle, carrying over one of the weakest and blandest aspects from Uncharted 4.

Abby's route mostly resolves these issues, but suffers from the absence of an "end-goal" that consistently drives the plot. It makes the events feel relatively insignificant when compared to the ongoing Wolves vs Scars conflict and the tension in Ellie's hunt, but that insignificance is critical to humanizing her character. The moments are not equally engaging, but convincing, which is a worthwhile trade-off for the goals of the game.

Poor structure and consequently characterization stand out far more given how exceptionally executed these factors are in Part I, where the clear end-goal allowed for time spent to develop the relationship of Joel and Ellie and their interactions with the sparse yet memorable side cast, while narrative progress was still being made. The majority of Part II's side cast feel like plot devices to fuel the grief and fury of Ellie and Abby; That isn't to say their interactions are not believable nor engaging, but they never create a level of emotional attachment established with the cast of the first game.

Fortunately, these flaws are the sacrifice for an exceptional thematic continuation of Ellie's journey. I cannot understate the importance that physically playing through the game has on your perspective towards Ellie and Abby's actions. It goes beyond understanding their fuel for revenge, but the misery of watching their lives spiral into chaos as they act on these feelings. The switch in protagonist is not a shallow explanation that there are two sides to every story, but a greater comment on how the first-person gameplay experience forces us to attach ourselves and root for a side, where our actions and emotional attachments are irrational.

Not only are these feelings irrational, but most importantly, inconsistent. If time reverts and events change, where Joel now forces himself into the emergency room, and Abby is now at the side of the doctor, would he make the same decisions? Abby's physical presence does not change the fact that killing the doctor will leave the child fatherless and spark a thirst for revenge, but the ability for Joel to know beforehand may have led to a completely different ending where Part II cannot exist. This is the main aspect of the narrative I feel is misconstrued, that Ellie's vicious killing of Scars and Wolves is contradictory to the stance she takes in the end, as if that itself is a flaw when in actuality it's the point. If not for Ellie, Abby's interactions with Lev and Yara is Naughty Dog being as blatant as possible. I find boiling the game down to the shallow conclusion "Revenge is bad" does a disservice to the numerous moments throughout the game where Ellie and Abby's humanity are challenged, and that their development as characters is not so linear in their realization that their actions have consequences. The final few scenes could not be a more horrifying yet beautifully portrayed depiction of inconsistency.

Even after the sweeps of controversy that consumed the launch of Part II back in 2020, I find myself satisfied with Naughty Dog's consistent level of quality and effort to take risks in an era of Sony that feels stale and safe. I love the Infected world of Last of Us but am looking forward to how ND's talent can be handled in a new series going forward.

I'm honestly pretty torn on Side Order, because I feel like it doesn't live up to expectations but it's also weirdly addicting. I just expected more substance from a DLC campaign, especially following Octo Expansion.

It does have a lot of replayability, but it still results in a very similar and short playthrough each time. Once you've completed one run, you've pretty much seen most of what there is to see. I would have appreciated more variety, as repeat rooms are encountered rather early on. This is extremely unfortunate considering most of them are rather uninteresting layouts confined in a small square platform. More objectives would also have been greatly welcomed, as the five that are here boil down to very similar encounters with enemies.

Since most of this DLC is just combat, I ended up missing the other elements of Splatoon campaigns, like the parkour and slight puzzle elements. The other campaigns (especially Octo Expansion) also allowed for fine-tuned and hand-crafted level design, which is why I was hesitant on the idea of a rougelike Splatoon campaign.

Issues aside, it is still enjoyable to run through the tower, slowly becoming stronger and stronger as you go. There is a large variety of upgrades to choose from, which does help each run feel a bit more unique. It's also really fun to create a completely broken setup and feel unstoppable as you destroy everything in your path.

Florence is a brief, interactive storybook, and it is one of the most unique games I've ever played in terms of actual gameplay. It's simple in its design, but powerful in its message. The artwork guides the player through the wordless story, not unlike the first 10 minutes of the movie Up. I quickly became attached to the main characters, Florence and Krish, and their lives. It only took me 42 minutes to beat this game, but I had actual tears streaming down my face at the end. I will be reflecting on Florence's message for quite some time.

It's not perfect, like for example the main 3 areas, Forest, Sand and Volcano are reused a lot. In general the game felt like it ran out of a steam after doing the Temple of Time dungeon. However, from a gameplay perspective things felt consistently great. The world design while super linear felt fun because it felt hand crafted and perfectly paced (most of the time). And the dungeons are genuinely excellent, I think the theming and the scope of the dungeons feels a little too plain most of the time but purely from a gameplay point of view they felt intuitive, the difficulty was just right. I just think the 3 main areas are reused too much from theming perspective, going to the forest for the third time for that stupid underwater mini game was just tiring.

Story wasn't amazing but it added cool lore and Groose is a chad. And while I didn't like the controls at first you do adjust to them in the end, they work perfectly fine on button controls. Worth a play if your a Zelda fan imho

My first Prince of Persia game, and it was a hoot and a holler! I had a lot of fun with this one.

🪶 The Lost Crown does a great job separating itself from the other metroidvanias I’ve played. It’s distinct. Movement and combat feels fluid. The time powers are dope as fuck. We love a good dash. We love a good parry. We love a good double jump. We love a good wall jump. We love a good grapple.

🪶 The combat was engaging and more complex than I expected (lots of opportunity for juggling and building combos of sorts). The boss fights were legit, and the lesser baddies were varied enough to keep things interesting when you explored. Stringing together hits with the various time and space manipulation powers felt dynamic and extremely rewarding. The powers play well int the narrative.

🪶 The platforming was mostly good!—somewhat hit or miss. There was just a lot of it, and it gave heavy Celeste vibes but wasn’t nearly precise enough for what it demanded at times. Also, I want to note that it was deeply satisfying to solve some of the puzzles within the game that relied on time powers (and platforming). They made me feel smort (some of the rewards at the end if the tunnel were booty though 😂)

🪶 I couldn’t tell you much about the story itself because honestly, I didn’t care to engage with it. 🤷🏻‍♂️ The plot itself was fine, but I thought the writing and dialogue overall was kinda meh. I liked the protagonist Sargon enough, but the rest of the characters were kind of forgettable. I’m sure the lore that’s sprinkled throughout the game is more interesting than I give it credit for but yeahh…

🪶 The presentation has its moments, and you can absolutely feel the anime influence (I love it, but I know some find it to be a bit too much). The setting of Mount Qaf was neat, and some of the environments were creatively designed and fairly interesting even though exploration felt far too drawn out. I was exhausted by the end of the game, and I felt there was a bit too much “bloat”. The character models didn’t impress me, but that didn’t have much sway in my overall thoughts anyways. It’s a good looking game.

🪶 I dont have much of an opinion on the music because it was kinda nonexistent (partially because of its ambient nature but also because of audio bugs). I guess “no” music is better than bad music.

🪶 I love the accessibility options. We NEED more of that. You can tweak a lot of stuff: aim and platforming assist, difficulty, guide markers.. it’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction to make these kind of games more accessible to all audiences.

🪶 Unfortunately I encountered more bugs than I would have liked.. I had NO music in the last few boss battles (now that I think of it, maybe even the last quarter of the game??), and I missed out on an entire boss fight/cutscene as well. I don’t want to say it necessarily “soured” my feelings toward the game, but also, it was pretty frustrating. This is my experience with Ubisoft though.🧍🏻‍♂️

If you love Metroidvanias, it’s a no-brainer pickup. Whether you sub to Ubisoft+ for a month (like myself) to play the game or wait for the inevitable sale, I definitely recommend it.

It has some pacing issues and Ubi bloat as far as exploration goes, but it also features some of my favorite gameplay within the sub-genre.

4 feathers of Simurgh out of 5 🪶

Crisis Core is an interesting game. As a prequel to FFVII it tells a story we know the ending to, and I find that interesting. Similarly to Torna in a way, which I loved. Here, it's very weirdly handled. However, I think it is saved largely because of how short and to the point it is.

Zack, our protagonist, is likeable enough here and his dynamic with a shy Cloud was a highlight. The game plays pretty well, and I found it quite challenging, especially at some bosses.

I think the game is carried largely by that ending, which was sad and very brutal. The first half of this game is just so boring and the combat itself was the only thing keeping me going. Dear lord, never mention Angeal ever again pls I don't know if I could take it.

Overall the definition of a 6.

A not indie game about some dude named Dave who dives for fish and helps manage a sushi restaurant. 🧍‍♂️

🦈 Featuring QTEs, engaging boss fights, mini games, resource management.. Dave the Diver's core gameplay is a blend of deep sea exploration and restaurant management, however the titular diver, Dave, does it "all". Whether it's introducing new systems and mechanics to build on established gameplay or as a reference/nod to other genres and familiar properties, there's never a dull moment. From upgrading weapons, to hiring staff for the restaurant, or farming for ingredients.. Dave the Diver is always building upon itself. The game's scope is as vast as the mysterious blue hole you explore and as (content) rich as Bancho's deep-sea sushi.

🦈 Visually and aurally, it's fantastic. The 2D/3D pixel art is rich and aesthetically pleasing, and the soundtrack pairs nicely with it. My playtime is a testament to the quality tunes being thrown my way because I spent countless minutes (hours??) vibing out at Bancho's Restaurant or at the title screen (sometimes WHILE I was exploring the deep sea!). It was as easy to get lost while playing the game as it was to doom scroll on this app as it ran idly in the background.

(Unrelated side note, but I just realized the title theme gives "Aquatic Ambience"... could be why I love it so much)

🦈 I LOVED the writing. The story and characters are memorable. As the game rolls along, you meet a handful of individuals, each colorfully characterized and filled with personality. They're well written and well integrated within the narrative as they provide Dave with tools and other utilities to help push the gameplay and story forward..

The gameplay loop is perfect, it's so well paced, and it's filled with heart. I can't recommend it enough!