Wow. I had a feeling I might enjoy this game, but never did I expect to absolutely love it the way that I did. After beating the game I read some reviews to see what did others pick up on that I missed, and while I could somewhat see some peoples gripes, I legitimately did not encounter any of them or think about them while playing.

- Right off the bat, anyone with eyes and ears can recognize the beauty of this games pixel art and its stunning music. Thats all that needs to be said about those, its a given.
- The gameplay I found to be really engaging, the combat keeps you focused and rewards swapping around party members with no punishment around levels. Exploration always rewards you with new gear or secrets and almost gives a bit of a zelda-esque experience doing through the different areas and dungeons, perhaps that will be their next genre?
- The plot and characters I thought were really well done. The two solstice warriors can be argued as bland or basic but if you spent your formative years training with an old man, you'd be a bit boring also. Luckily this is where the supporting cast of characters and party members comes in, each of them with their own personality, motivations, and secrets. Meanwhile we have a plot basically themed on responsibilities, ones that are inherited, ones we feel compelled to take on etc, and how we handle those responsibilities. I would advise going for the true ending, the requirements aren't steep if you've been engaging with the game as you go, took me maybe an extra hour or two max after beating the normal ending. Some people take issue with certain plot beats and twists but honestly it did all I could have asked for it to do and I'm more than ok with how it all ended up.

If you played The Messenger you will also get some added joy and cheeky nods while playing Sea of Stars. But you also don't feel left out if you didn't. Where one person sees a familiar face, another sees a cool new character, its very well balanced but rewarding for those involved.

Overall, Sea of Stars is a delight of a game. Thankfully the kickstarter raised enough to hit the dlc goal so I will return for that, and I will absolutely be keeping an eye on Sabotage Studios next game.

I gave the first game a 5/5 so I had to do it here also since this is just an improvement in almost every way. The only area I think one could argue its not as strong is the plot, which don't get me wrong its a good plot, its just that both are good so its moreso about which is better. I'll need more time with this before making that decision myself.

Gameplay refined, side quests more personal, much bigger and more frequent set pieces and boss fights, some fantastic suits for both characters, I just loved this experience so much in so many ways, had an amazing time this past week playing through it that while I can't think of any real gripes I have, any I could possible think of would be so minor in the grand scheme of things. Is it absolutely flawless and trans-formative of the open world formula? No but for me it didn't need to be, it was what I wanted and more. I am curious will Insomniac play a follow game less safe, time will tell.

Surprised how much I enjoyed this. It just has a particular vibe that I really clicked with and I'm not sure how to describe it. While the plot can be a bit convoluted at times and there are some gameplay sections I didn't like, such as any segments with possessed objects flying at me, outside of that I really clicked with the core gameplay of killing/avoiding enemies, it might annoy some but I found it kind of satisfying to blast them after shining the flashlight at them.

I am glad I'm playing it now compared to when it first released though, because I think the ending couldn't sit as well if I didn't have the dlc, a sequel, and the Remedyverse to know the story would continue elsewhere.

I'm glad Alan Wake 2 and the Remedyverse of games got me to finally try this as I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think its gameplay is stronger than alan wake 1 and it might have the best gameplay of psychic powers I can think of in a game. However it does have some weakpoints, I think its plot is not as strong as alan wake as it tells a lot of its plot through documents found around the building and its not as immediately coherent, I feel like I need to watch a recap video to fully understand what happened. I don't think the setting is very strong either, at times its phenomenal like the ash tray maze, but for large portions its just a grey building that blurs together floor by floor. Thankfully the gameplay is strong enough to push past a lot of that and while the story is hard to fully comprehend, its fine for moment to moment segments.

Safe to say I fell into the same rabbit hole with this game that many other people last year did also. I was particularly surprised because I had no prior DnD knowledge and the only CRPG I had played was Disco Elysium, which I didn't even know was a CRPG or what that genre really was.

I'm going to try and avoid doing a full crazy detailed breakdown of my thoughts on the game cause I feel like I could ramble for quite a while since with 100 hours played in like less than 3 weeks, theres a lot I can say. Clearly I was hooked, once I managed to get an understanding of the combat I was able to settle in and enjoy the next 70 hours or so unimpeded for the most part.

I say it like that because while I did enjoy the game overall, I think the wheels start to fall off a bit in act 3. This game was in early access for two years I believe where people could play all of act 1. You can tell when you play that act 1 is definitely the most polished part and I kind of wish they had done the same for the other acts. Act 2 is very light compared to act 3 content wise and even act 1, and act 3 is basically as large as act 1 and 2 put together and is almost overwhelming when you reach that point after already putting in 70-80 hours only to get a new objective for the real endgame bad guys.

That being said, I wouldn't put 100 hours in so quickly if I didn't enjoy it. I think the writing is top tier, even the most random of NPCs are a level of interesting, and not a single voiced line is phoned in, everyone from the main cast to a pig on a farm puts their all into the voice work. I think the character build system and all the spells, cantrips etc can be overwhelming initially but once you find some stuff you like the game is pretty much beatable with most setups, bar a select number of disgusting fights in act 3 that really need to be patched for a quick redesign, looking at you Viconia.

In summary, writing and va good, plenty of content, initially overwhelming, overstuffed final act along with some bugs and frustrating dev decisions lead to a small dip in enjoyment but overall I'd recommend and honestly I think if I had any prior DnD experience I would have given it a 5/5 since I'd already have a lot of the onboarding already done and understood.

Is it too early to put this down as potentially one of the best Ubisoft games? Its definitely one of the best modern Ubisoft games thats for sure. I really hope this becomes a trend of bigger studios taking on smaller genres and games, its much more digestible and feasible than massive AAA graphic fidelity chasing games.

So what happens when a well funded team from an experienced studio takes on a genre mostly populated by smaller dev games? You get The Lost Crown, a very well polished and thought out game that dives deep into the genre and while it doesn't reinvent the wheel, it does show the best the genre has to offer and even adds some elements of its own that could potentially becomes staples down the line. By that I mean the snapshot feature lol.

I mentioned in my Hollow Knight review from last year that "I think some of the progression is a bit more abstract than I would have liked, I think maybe marking more points of interest, specifically points where you come across a door you can't open yet, so that when you get the key or ability required, you remember where to go" and here we are with guided mode in the lost crown just straight up adding that feature exactly lmao. On top of that, I think The Lost Crown is a slightly more accessible metroidvania than something like Hollow Knight, its got more difficulty options and it doesn't have a soulslike feel to the combat like Hollow Knight.

Getting a bit longwinded here so I'll just rapid fire some more thoughts. The story is kinda whatever, it starts off quite boring but eventually picks up but never really becomes a motivating factor to play. The general gameplay, boss fights, and platforming all feel really good, even if some platforming sections near the end are a bit too much for my liking but those are fully optionable and I didn't feel like I was missing out on the rewards hindering my capabilities in boss fights etc.

Overall, really enjoyed this, zoomed through it in 5 days which is always a good sign, glad it ended up being really good after the unfair initial negative backlash its reveal got.

A fun 10 hour ish game jam project where you play as the child of a famous samurai warrior who goes on a quest to rescue your missing father along with stopping an evil clan from turning all pokemon into wild shadow pokemon.

Yes thats right, shadow pokemon are back. Thats the main gimmick of this fan game along with its story and aesthetic being all about ninjas and samurais so if you like any of those things, you'll like this. My only issue with the shadow pokemon is that basically none of the ones you get an opportunity to catch during the majority of the game actually fit well into my team as I was playing and I didn't like any of the options enough to substitute anyone out but that will vary person to person.

Not a whole lot else to say, it has some cool custom music at times, region design is simple but effective since there are only like 3 or 4 "gyms" but you will still finish the game around the high 60s so you do get a full experience.

I am so fucking happy this got a remake because I don't think I would ever have gotten around to playing any of its original releases and man I would have missed out on a fantastic story, some great social links, excellent music and what might be my favourite overall theme/message of any persona game I've played, or even any game ever.

The music is neck and neck with 5 for me, I think reload has the best intro song and Its Going Down Now is a fucking banger. The social links suffer a bit from being the same as the original game so obviously they don't have the same level of experience as they did with latter games but most of them are fine and some are excellent like Maiko and Akinari. The battle system is also much more akin to 5 and even reworks fusion spells from original 3 into Theurgy which I think is a great mechanic.

Without a doubt the best plot of modern persona trio. If 5 is a bad guy of the month and 4 is a murder mystery, then I think I would compared 3 to a sort of conspiracy thriller with its twists, turns, and revelations. Also I think this might be my favourite party member cast. Its hard because I spent twice as long with the 5 cast and you never forget your first persona crew, but man like, Ken might be an all timer for me, love that little kid. Koromaru is based as fuck, Aigis becomes this vessel for the games main message, Mitsuru is mommy, its all great stuff. Of course the sure sign of a fantastic plot and crew is an emotional response during or at the ending and I damn sure had an emotional response during the game and especially during the ending.

Now, is the game flawless? No, but neither is 5R honestly. 5R suffers from being almost overstuff, it has the weakest plot of the trio, the pacing can be quite poor at times over its long runtime. 3 has its flaws in the last month or so being quite bare in terms of content as you wrap things up, the plot is one story rather than arcs which some people can dislike, some of the writing is literal 2000s quality. However, both have strong factors that redeem those weaknesses which is why I'd give both a 5/5 and the answer to which one is my favourite will probably change week to week but for now I'll put P3R just ahead of P5R but expect it to flip flop between the two of them. And I'm happy thats the way it is, because its fantastic to have to excellent games that I enjoyed this much exist in the world.