At once one of the worst and best games I've played in a while. I'm compelled enough to want to know what they're doing, but also the act of trying to figure out what they're doing is a fool's errand lol. Rebirth is exceptional when it's about hanging out. But it's weighed down so heavily by the worst case of ubisoft open world bloat I've ever put up with. Its combat system could be studied in universities for eons, it's obscenely, disgustingly, putridly brilliant. Boss fights in this game are some of the most fun and fascinating collaborations of systems and creative design I can recall, and I don't think they're getting nearly enough credit for just how intricate it is. But 95% of the fighting in this game is generic fodder enemies that turn it into a borderline-musou level of turn-off-brain-and-mash-square. The bulk of this game does disservice to everything it excels at. It bogs itself down with frivolous padding at every opportunity—every little action takes like a second and a half longer than you'd expect, making it feel sloppy and unresponsive in the hands when outside of combat, which is most of the time. The composition work on this score is some inconceivable galaxy brain stuff. We're talking minimum 200 IQ moves all over the place. I cannot wait for that big-ass CD box set, dude. That's my main takeaway from this game.

First time returning to it in almost 20 years. Game's still a masterpiece.

This is the first Ys game I've finished and I absolutely adored my time with it. I can't wait to get into the rest of them.

Played through it again but in co-op on Xbox "live" via insignia and it whipped ass. I love this game more every time I play it. The acceleration curves on the analog sticks feel great and super modern (when you max the sensitivity lol).

A perfectly cromulent third person shooter with some genuinely clever and thoughtful cooperative mechanics, with one of the worst Diablo Cody-ass scripts I've ever heard in my time on this Earth. The game's biggest sin, however, is in locking you into a weirdly cruel bad ending sequence, if and only if you manage to succeed a random quick time event in the middle of the damn game. Bummer! The game is also putting Kafka quotes on-screen constantly and it made me laugh every time. Classic bit.

Does a few extremely cool things, but at the end of the day "mario" can only really go so far for me, I guess.

VC is still a great SRPG but there's sooooo so much VN stuff in here and the writing just isn't doing anything for me. Seven hours and I haven't seen a new environment yet, think I'm gonna have to hit the eject lever on this one unfortunately.

Probably the weakest Yakuza for me but that's grading in a high curve. There's a weird tone shift without Majima that almost makes it feel like a gaiden sort of thing. The protagonist worship from every NPC is really annoying, and the combat still feels like filler. However, the dudes still rock extremely hard, and there is a heaping helping of a lovingly rendered Beat Takeshi.

2021

Extremely good. Occasionally maybe a bit too esoteric, but overall an extremely well-made Quake-like.

Easily one of the best PSP games I've ever played. Thank you, Mizuguchi-san.

damn near perfect stealth game and an incredible co-op experience. it's just a shame the PC port is bugged to all heck.

I know it's a meme and I hate the parts where it explicitly does meme stuff like shrek and the backrooms but otherwise, gosh damn this is a monumental project and it makes me want to give in to astonishment.

the GOAT Of All Time, now in M2 ShotTriGgers form.