One of the best Horror-RPG experiences out there.
An unexpectedly packed, brilliant take on turn-based RPG that's so generous on content, soundtrack and overall atmosphere, while delivering one of the most compelling stories of its genre.

I believe the game to be flawed in some aspects storywise, especially with the delivery of the layered moral the game tries to communicate. Conflicting issues regarding some characters tend to be delivered more poorly than others on a deeper lense of analysis. It's a misleadingly complex game, with a complex story to unpack;

But overall a really smart one, that I anticipated for a long time before release; I was a bit scared for it to be yet another pretentious title with not much substance to it like some other ambitious RPG maker projects we got in the recent years. I lived through this painful 6 years of wait and anticipation, from middle school to near adulthood. I grew so much, there was so many ways to feel let down by Omori; I'm very glad to say it did not. This game has things to say and the way it does it is beautiful.
A must play

It's Super Mario On The Nintendo DS 2006 Console what do you want me to say i played this before learning how to read
great level design Miyamoto's team just never miss & one of the best 2d mario we got

Bonus point for multiplayer + minigames holy shit they go hard
PLAY THE MARIO VS LUIGI PC ONLINE FANPORT

One of the best JRPGs I've played of the last decade. It could've had a shitty UI, bad presentation with a mid forgettable soundtrack and still would've been a 4* rating from the cheer quality and complexity of its gameplay, and the absurd amount of polish put into its gameplay loop.
But thank god it's also the most charming and visually stunning game ever made.

The story is not its forte, and shows a big shift compared to previous titles. Although i still find it to have a significantly more compelling story to follow than persona 4. Due to the nature of its concept, the story avoids most of the time to explore solutions of the societal and moral issues it wants to address, which makes for a much less engaged story to its previous titles.
There's also a clashing contrast between what the game wants to tell and its representation that can be really off putting at times (Looking at Ann's character arc). I do find however the cast to be very good, especially the confidents which are consistently really fun to follow. The quantity of stories and content here is even more incredible to
Overall a clear departure from the rest of the series, the focus was put more on characters than story, for better or for worse.

Although Futaba's arc is fantastic and by far the biggest highlight of the game, as well as one of the most well written character in the series. Sadly, I don't think most people complaining about the games story & its characters went far enough to know that; we're light years ahead of the uhh other main female characters of this game.
The plot is also thrilling to follow; far better paced than P3 and especially P4 which i had so many issues getting invested in; Persona 5 was fun and intriguing in many regards for me.

Gameplay-wise I think it lacks a bit in replayability due to its unchallenging difficulty (too many options to get OP if you know what you do). For the grinders like me who are used to farm a lot between dungeons, the Mementos can cause some serious difficulty balancing issues during main story too, making it WAY to easy at times, and pretty inconsistent.

In my opinion, by far the best game in the Persona series, as well as a game that probably contributed a lot into repopularising turn-based RPGs, and J-RPGs in the West to a more mainstream audience.
Hope we get a more mature & elaborate setting like the ones of P2 & P3, with better writers and actual themes to explore in persona 6, & will hopefully go forward with this perfected gameplay loop

if they fuck this up with the quadrajillion $$$ they generated over P5 im gonna be mad ok bye

It is The Legend Of Zelda The Breath Of The Wild On The Nintendo Switch

you know how at some point, game journalists kept saying a game is "the dark souls of _____ games" when talking about any games with some die & retry elements? well this game is the dark souls of saying a game is 'the breath of the wild of' when talking about any openworld post-2017

edit : and now we came full circle with Elden ring being called the botw of souls games, truly a visionnary review

fuck gacha games and i hate what this game represents in regards to the future of the video game industry;
and yet a fun, pretty and addictive experience that really surprised me and took over my life for dozens of hours, without having to spend a cent on it.
Still, a pretty weak and messy story at first, with a LOT of dump lore (which is to be expected from this kind of games), & still lacking in endgame content. With of course, all the usual gacha elements i tend to despise.

So a decent to good experience that i think would've benefit from being a more traditional singleplayer Action-RPG without all the excessive ingame purchases, but it probably wouldn't have made a bajillion dollars

what can i say; a game that just serves its purpose

an artistic proposition in its nature, honestly most of what i could complain about with this game at least serves the impact it tries, and in my opinion success to get on you.
i didn't knew anything about the game when booting it besides a friend describing it as :
1 - an absolute masterpiece that i should definitely play
2 - a god awful experience that will try anything to make me suffer

damn he wasn't lying

there is so many ways pathologic could've felt too undeserving of my time; too hard to be worth beating, too boring to push through, and yet i managed to finish the bachelor's route.
The story was probably a big part of my motivation to finish the first route. People can complain about the painfully long and unnatural dialogues, but for me their alienating nature only maintained my curiosity, and the complexity and overall greatness of its story and characters took me off guard, even with said expectations.
Its game design too, in a way... a true subversive lesson on how to give your players an ulcer. But through each day, it is so fascinating to see in which ways the game will completely bamboozle you from simply trying to do your job. It feels like the game is playing with you more than you playing it.
A metanarrative experience that deserves its title of cult classic, as well as the "game that's too hard to beat" because yeah, who would finish such an pain inducing, hell ride torture of what should barely be considered a video 'game' in the sense that you're supposed to 'play' it god help me
help me i can't take anymore anxiety god please stop this ok anyway

The biggest complains i could give are :
the game suffers from a lot of bugs that can softlock or at least confuse you enough that a blind playthrough without any guide might make the game just a bit too exigent to beat for something that already plays with the limits of how much frustration the player can indure.
Obviously the walking speed, while an essential part of the experience and something that contributes to the emasculated nature of the game, still represents 90% of your playtime. Time that will be focused on being stressed to know where to go, to know what to do, to think about why everyone in this city is fucking with you, and of course a time full of quicksave quickload to avoid dying while the most banging soundtrack contribute to your crippling anxiety. So what i mean is, it's intended, but it's also just too much for most players.
I also manage (surprisingly so) to get the secret secret ++ true ending on my first run without knowing the conditions, and i don't know if I would've had the patience to go through my saves again to redo it. That's about it.
i've been dreaming about this game for weeks
it's taking over my life
god help me
can't wait to play pathologic 2

My first Yakuza game
...

holy fuck

ok besides being such a great drama story that works incredibly well both on its own and as a new entry point to the series, I can only bow for and respect the care and the attention put to details throughout every story elements to make this game work as a prequel not only thematically, but also as a way to recontextualize every early aspects of the yakuza series in better regard. Truly a perfect prequel.

While it's a bit soon for me to talk about the variety and quality of the minigames and sidequests within the context of the series; i can confidently say this game is an eye opener for anyone like me who slept on RGG Studio titles.

It is such a complete experience, because besides its DEEPLY intricate 'minigames' who are often closer to full ass functioning games within the game, and its high amount of sidequests I find to be almost all very fun and memorable, the game does not neglect on any other aspects.
The story is fantastic and I believe will be very hard to top by any other games in this franchise (I do hope I'm wrong tho)
Every single characters are interesting in some aspects and worth analysing within a deeper lens whether they represents in a smart way different images or values of the complex world of japanese mafia, or depicting a refreshing look of the behind the scenes of Japanese society, especially within the 80s.
The music goes HARD, the environments are fantastic with a beautiful and highly realistic map that made me fall in love with semi-restricted open worlds of small areas. Every streets are so packed with details...
I believe the size of the map is perfect; while it felt just a bit too small at first, since I went completely blind into this game the absolutely unexpected chapter 3 flipped my brain on this aspect.

The weakest element for me was probably the combat system; while I think it's pretty okay, the balance of the different styles could've been handled better (although i appreciate the variety and sillyness of each of them). There's nothing really mindblowing or revolutionary about the combat, nor does it really tries to be. Its focus is mainly put on presentation, and thanks to heat attacks It is still an absolute pleasure to pick up a fight and try to find a new animation depending on the area you're in, or try out a new object.

I believe this game is important not only as the absolute masterpiece that it is but also for making the Yakuza series and the overall RGG Studio productions better known and respected in the West.
Absolute must play

A game for which his legacy's much more than all the unfair shitty platformers we got after its release. A legacy of the cultural impact it had on the internet indie game freeware and flash gaming scene, as well as the die & retry and 2d platformer genres as a whole.

I genuinely consider IWBTG to be a brilliant package of level design and creativity when it comes to 2D platformers. Passed the frustration of the first unfair screens, I would say from the first Boss of the game, through each main zones, IWBTG keeps us surprised with clever ideas of subverting its die & retry nature to the point that, the game is like
fun y'know; and pretty funny too

And sure the controls are clumsy, with the eaten double jump when you fall from the edge of a platform even for a frame; the often glitchy hitboxes and awkward sprites works of stolen assets. But I think the game comes from a good spirit and a sincere willingness to create humorous scenes, and tends to be an often tasteful tribute to retro games.
The game is really ahead of its time, too. As an indie passion project that inspired so much of the soulless unfair clones of the early 2000's as well as many smart and fun 2d platformers of the era, I think we don't give enough credit for the sparse of creativity that this game bringed. Just look at the hundreds of surprisingly good fangames.

I don't think the game is unfairly hard at any point, actually it's pretty baffling how people saw this game as the 'pinnacle of difficulty' at the time, when in reality playing it as of today doesn't feel much harder than games like meatboy or celeste, and the game is much more generous with checkpoints in the lower difficulty than what people tend to say.
It's surprising how well designed the whole structure of the game is, especially when looking at its difficulty. Because while some bosses can be a huge spike of difficulty, not a single time was I in a situation where I was lost, couldn't figure out the right solution, or just felt stuck because the game was too difficult. It always stayed on the perfect line between challenging but not too hard to beat, and frustrating but not too frustrating that stepping on a new dumb trap that instantly kills you does more than amuse you at the moment. Especially because the game has so many ways to kill you in much more clever ways than the apples of the 1st screen. So great in fact that I just don't want to spoil it.

I think the worst aspects of it is how dated some of the jokes are, it really is a product out of the 2000's internet era with his overly toxic masculinity and 'gamer' jokes, among other tacky things. But honestly that tiny bit of jokes feel more than forgiven for all the much more charming aspects of its um funnyness.
Really that's about it, the game still feels fun to play nowaday and the impact of IWBTG cannot be understated. I'm glad the active fangame scene and the spirit of the genre is maintained and honored through all the indie platformers of the last decade or so. I can only wish I convinced you to try it out or even replay it years later because it's a sweet little gem that definitely gave me a lot of love and appreciation for the games it transpired to.

I'm very fond of the indie RPG horror scene of the late 2000's and early 2010s. You can find some truly beautiful and creative projects that served to display great talents of composition, illustration, writing, etc..
Ambitious ideas both narratively and gameplay wise, despite the often limited tools.

And also of course a lot of badly made games, often from kids who wanted to make the next hit game or simply to share their ideas for their (not so) awesome story. But there's something really innocent about this era. An era where anyone could make their own horror experience and hope to see it become popular; everything was not so great about those games, but it pushed lots of young people to learn how to create things. It inspired a generation.
All those games, they really tried to be... something, anything. And although they often failed at it, I respect that.

This game didn't tho lmao
might be the laziest game i've seen from this time it's truly a shame it became that famous ngl