On one hand, Palworld is on about the same level of creative bankruptcy as Lies of P. In addition to the obvious Pokemon ripoffs, you've got Zelda fonts and sounds, you've got Xenoblade world design, you've even got freakin Limgrave.

And yet on the other hand, despite all these very questionable and almost certainly litigious similarities, it's a better Pokemon game than anything Nintendo has released in at least a decade. It's also a far more tolerable crafting game than most, thanks to the Pals providing some level of automation, and pretty lenient hunger/sleep/whatever mechanics. In light of this, I find it much less egregious than something like Lies of P or Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, which were simply soulless, inferior versions of the things they were shamelessly trying to emulate.

Palworld has issues for sure. Pathing is total shit, Pals don't appear to have swimming animations so they just run in water, and building is bizarre, with objects refusing to connect to others for no discernible reason. The controls are inconsistent, where sometimes Tab will exit a screen, sometimes F will exit, and sometimes you have to hit Esc. There's no "exit game" option on the main menu, so you have to alt+f4 this bitch. It would also be nice if your Pals had a setting to stop them from trying to Last Hit every enemy like they're playing Dota.

Despite all this, I'm having a pretty good time with it. Hopefully the developers don't abandon it, but with its success, they have a pretty good incentive to keep updating it.

Also, fuck Nintendo. All my homies hate Nintendo.

EDIT -- I would like to clarify: Do Not Spend Money On This Game, You Idiots. It's on game pass if you really want to play it. I do not say this because of some moral issue regarding stolen designs or (as of yet unfounded allegations of) generative AI usage. Don't pay for games in early access! You're buying broken shit that will probably never get fixed! Goddamned Mindcraft ruined everything.

If I'm ever looking for the type of game that's guaranteed to satisfy me on just about every aspect, I know I'm looking for a kind of platformer where every single level is at least 2 to 4 new mechanics relentlessly shoved down my throat, paired up with some of the most refined, godlike controls. Donkey Kong Country 2, Rayman Legends, maybe even the Spyro trilogy. All these, and Yoshi's Island too, fall under the same boat of games with such enormous confidence and passion put behind them, that I don't have to think twice about booting them up the moment I think about them.

On a side note, how many people actually call this game "Mario World 2?" Because I just use the "Yoshi's Island" subtitle to refer to it, and I do so because this thing is so far removed from the actual Mario World, that at times I don't really know whether it counts as a mainline Mario game, or a very elaborate spinoff of it, with the World moniker used to give it some marketing push. And I mean, starting from Yoshi's Story onward, all the way to the kinda middling Yoshi's Crafted World, it then really did become a spinoff franchise. Mario's just a guest character here, the run button is absent in favor of an automatic windup run, and stomping is a mere side ability in favor of the considerably more complex loop of creating egg ammunition out of enemies, aiming your shots, ricocheting them across walls, and skipping them across lakes of water.

With a little practice, it takes astoundingly quick to get used to these mechanics, not to mention how little of your time they actually waste. Being able to move around while aiming prevents the flow of gameplay from stopping, alongside the ability to instantly aim above you by holding up before readying the egg shot. The design rejects constraining its gameplay to a janky "stop 'n go" set of movements, and must've spent years being refined to ensure every action you perform can be done while on the move. Which is such a huge thing to appreciate, considering how most developers would've likely bungled this sort of thing on their first try, yet released it anyway. But Miyamoto's team had already perfected it here.

Aside from the variety of mechanics present at each stage, something else I adore is the huge amount of stages present in itself. While ultimately less than the 96 stages of the first Mario World, Yoshi's Island's 48 stages manage to still feel bigger by abandoning Mario World 1's more arcadey setup. Gone is the time limit, and gone is the conventional high score on the top left of the screen. Yoshi Island's HUD is by comparison a lot more minimalistic, and this was done to encourage playing levels thoroughly, not quickly.

Exploration is the main dish of the game, and by god there's so much shit to find. Secrets galore, things that are just there for fun and not to actually serve any purpose. There are entire mechanics locked away behind secret pathways which you'll otherwise never see if you're speedrunning the thing. Every 4 levels you run into a new boss, and it's not like the previous games where it's a bunch of the same boring Koopaling fights, no! Every boss is different, every boss is fought differently. You get swallowed by a giant frog, you fight a crow on the moon, you destroy platforms to send an invincible monster down a lava pit, and none of these are ever repeated. Which is more than what I can say for even something as creative as Mario Wonder - which is still a fantastic game, mind you - but nothing has yet to match the unbridled creativity of Yoshi's Island, a delicious pot of hundreds of ideas that has no end to it at all until the moment you see the credits.

So, I guess this is where I talk about my rating being a 4.5 instead of a 5/5, right? Well, believe it or not, the Baby Mario cry is not the reason. Actually, I've always been confused about that, is it really THAT bad to people? I mean, one thing for sure is that it fulfills its point. It serves to make you frantically scramble to get Baby Mario back as soon as you can, before that timer reaches 0. But, like, it being "annoying/ear grating" though? Eh, it's fine, really. Maybe I have a higher tolerance for this stuff or something.

The flaw of Yoshi's Island I really want to talk about is the difference between casual exploration, and obsessive completionism. So, just to catch up newcomers, every level can be 100%ed, right? There are three conditions for this. Collect all 20 Red Coins, all 5 Flowers, and reach the end goal with 30 Stars. First things first, part of what makes the Red Coins suck is that they're only just SLIGHTLY red, but otherwise, blend in with all the other yellow coins. I have partial color blindness, so being able to tell apart the color falls out of the question. While the solution to this would be "well, just grab all the coins then, they give you extra lifes anyway, it's a win-win" but sometimes, the game will put you into a situation where you only have one shot to grab the coins, whether it's when you're falling down, or moving across an autoscrolling sequence. I'm aware there's an item you can use that makes red coins much more obvious to see, but... that's assuming you're lucky to actually get it in one of the minigames, and why obtuse it like that anyway? What would've been the harm in making the red coins look more obvious by default?

The next problem are the "Stars" collectibles. Stars are your health, and you can cap'em out at 30. Of course, as you take damage, your Stars decrease. Now, the thing is, to 100% a level, the more sensible thing would be to punish you if, say, you took damage 3 times across the stage. Instead, what Yoshi's Island decides is that you can collect as many Stars as you want throughout the level, but if you so much as take one sliver of damage at the very tail end of it, then that's it for the 100% run, you're gonna have to do the stage all over again.

What makes this worse is that you can't 100% this stage by, for example, doing one run where you collect all the Red Coins and Flowers, then another run just to do the 30 Stars. You gotta do everything, all at once. Collect all the shit, find all the secrets, AND make it to the end of the level without taking damage, and only then will the game consider that level fully completed. To me, that's an insane set of conditions considering the larger scope of each stage, and ultimately, I've only ever done a 100% run once because of this. Which is enough for a lifetime.

"So, 100%ing sucks, why do it at all then?" Good question. The point of this entire tattletale is me saying it's not worth it. Instead, it's much better to play it as if you're attempting to 100% for the sake of discovering all the cool little secrets the game has to offer, BUT if you miss something, then you should just live with it, and move on. The only real big shame about this is that 100%ing unlocks an extra set of neat stages for you to play through, and I wish I could unlock these stages without it being this massive chore. As a whole, Yoshi's Island is some of the best platforming you'll ever get, contrasted against some of the most painful completionism that there is. Thus, play it casually for the best possible experience.

Oh yeah, I got a hot take too. The overworld theme is admittingly very memorable, but I'm really not a big fan of that harmonica. If we're talking "ear grating noises", then this is the closest thing I can point at, I just don't like it. In general, I feel like there's not enough music in this game to match the amount of varied content present in it, which in itself makes the overworld theme get worse over time. Anyway, it's not that big of a deal, I mean, the athletic theme is fantastic, and so is the castle theme, the boss theme, the final boss theme... there's still really good stuff in here, even if there's not much of it.

And that's that for my review! Good night.

Resident Evil 4 is one of the most important games of all time, everyone knows this and why that is; it is essentially, the first "modern" game as we think of them. And a brutally difficult question you will inevitably have to ask after experiencing a landmark title like that is of course, well, how do you follow that up? If you want a simple answer, Resident Evil 5 is probably your best bet. If you want the real answer, its God Hand.

If Resident Evil 4 is ushering in the modern age of games, then God Hand feels like a celebratory send off to a now bygone era. I doubt anyone would've known that at the time making it, but considering we're only just now returning to this style of game over fifteen years after the fact it harkens completely true. God Hand was made in a relatively short development period, very obviously using design elements and ideas directly from Mikami's now magnum opus and creating something so completely different out of it. It reminds me a lot of Majora's Mask funnily enough more than anything in that regard; taking one of the most influential games of all time and using that framework to tell something completely new and fresh. All of that is to make God Hand sound very legitimate and classy, and in some regards, yes; it absolutely is. But its also fucking God Hand; maybe one of the most batshit, off the wall experiences that we got of the sixth generation.

This is the kitchen sink of action video games. Absolute ridiculous nonsense, and absolutely revels in it. Capcom during this era were pumping some of the best action games ever made during this time, and God Hand truly does feel like a grand last minute after-party. It controls oddly, but when it clicks (and it takes like five minutes for it to) your life is never the same again. Everything is snappy and responsive, stylish and cool, and so intensely customizable and yet; simple, its stupidly impressive. This game is hardcore as hell, and while "this project couldn't be made today" usually makes my eyes roll, I'll say it for this. Playing this game geniunely makes my hands sore, and I don't care for even a second. It is absurdly addicting, every punch and kick has that over the top weight that makes you feel like a God among men. The game is hard, stupidly so, and why wouldn't it be after Devil May Cry 3 was such a landmark title for Capcom; but when you play well, you feel like you're on top of the world.

The absurdity of this game also seeps well into the games concepts too. What it lacks in environments, it makes up for by doing every gaudy over-the-top decision Capcom made and then some in this game. The first thing that happens in this game is Gene complaining to his partner that a bunch of mooks he is about to beat up are sexier than her; and then youre literally kicking them across the entire map not even a minute later. Trying to explain what happens in this game wouldn't do it justice; it knows what it is and it probably knows you love every second of it, and yeah, I do, and clearly everyone else does too.

This is one of those pieces of art that in the moment, it feels like the greatest thing to ever exist. And obviously, God Hand is not the greatest game of all time; but fuck it, maybe it should be. My hands hurt while writing this after beating the final boss of the game and I couldn't be happier.

There's been multiple attempts to create an RE4 sequel in the forms of a multiplayer RE4 (RE5), a continuation of the story (RE Damnation & Degeneration), and even a full remake, and while all of these are great I view God Hand as the true RE4 sequel as it further builds upon RE4's gameplay and was literally developed by the same team. Leon's melee moveset (minus the knife) return but now expanded with over 150+ moves that are all somehow like really really good and useful. Like how did they fucking do this. Fans of RE4 and killer7 have a lot of fanservice from both games to dig through and as someone who's extremely familiar with both games I appreciated all of it. It has a much higher learning curve than RE4 making it a harder game to recommend to a normal ass guy but if you're looking for more of RE4's style and gameplay it turns out the best place to go is the action game route instead of a route that banks more on the horror aspect.

"Dragon Kick your ass into the Milky Way!"

Pure action, physicality, and hand-to-hand obliteration. The feeling you get when you perfectly line up your tailor-made combo, juggling an enemy into the air only to hit them with a high kick and send them flying is pure elation. By the end of the game on my 10th attempt at the final boss I was expertly avoiding moves and getting jabs in to perfectly execute Double Shaolin, moving into God Hand mode right into pummel. It's honestly everything you could ask from a game and more. Absolutely brilliant.

https://i.imgur.com/AbGZYCb.png
Game's heavier than a honey baked ham!!!
For every moment in Yakuza 5 that lead me into thinking I was playing an untamed vortex of passion and uncompromised vision, there were two-to-five other uncomplimentary moments that felt like spinning plates and taking the meandering narrative for walkies. Spreads its roots far & wide across so many ideas and gameplay concepts that, on paper, scans as a maximalist daydream I'd love to lose myself in, but all of it feels so perfunctory and checklisty. Fifty different minigames to micromanage and level up in individually to access Harder Levels of said minigames - - - Vidcon Gospel since time immemoria but my patience has limits :(

Haruka's chapter was probably my personal standout, if only with thanks to how vastly different her story played to any character to come before. The rhythm battles were so fun albeit with the game's slim tracklist, and her substories took on a refreshing dynamic too. The combat in these games has never impressed me but I'd much rather play an unimpressive rhythm game than a brawler I've lost heart in. From a narrative perspective, it is infuriatingly complacent with the practices Japanese idol industry in a way I find legitimately toothless in a series that tends to dedicate fisticuffs to rooting out corruption and it makes Haruka's characterisation weaker as a result.
When came the Shinada chapter I was desperately hoping the end credits would finally begin to roll, which is a shame because he and Koichi's dynamic is probably my favourite spark of character chemistry in the entire series.

I in complete honesty couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in the final hours. This was a game I had started months ago and it rather hilariously demanded for me to recall with perfect clarity a cloak and dagger conspiracy that happened in the initial chapters. The overarching story was a wash for me but I much preferred when the leading cast were locked in their own little bubbles, & exploring their own vignettes about dreams lost & worth aspiring 4. Truly believe that in another world, this would have been a younger me's One Playstation 3 Game For The Month and I'd have completely melted into it - but sadly, I had to play this in incredibly granular sessions that largely felt like clocking in for community service.

"Try to get as many 'HEARTS' as possible by meeting your girlfriend's demands."

In my review for the original OutRun, I referred to the game as an "i-15 simulator." Its distinctly Californian vistas and the frequency in which you pay witness to the most horrific car crashes imaginable rouse fond memories of nearly losing my life repeatedly on trips to and from my grandparent's home in Orange. Oh good, it was just a bus full of tourists that collided with a semi-truck and overturned, not me. Whew. Think I'll stop off for some McDonalds and pay triple the normal value for fries.

The original OutRun is a near-perfect simulacrum of this experience, and so it goes without saying that OutRun 2006's improved fidelity and more fluid controls provides a more accurate translation of that unique vibe. As with OutRun, your journey begins along the shore and branches out along one of several routes towards the more mountainous regions of California, and it's for this reason I picked it as one of the last games to play during my 2023 Summah Games series. It represents the trip back home. The vacation is over, it's time to leave the beaches and boardwalks behind and begin that long, harrowing trek back towards the drudgery of your everyday life - back to work and responsibilities, to the tired and familiar. It's the victory lap, and one last taste of Summah.

While the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque progression system accounts for a significant chunk of OutRun's replay value, Coast 2 Coast introduces a slew of additional modes and unlockables to pad out the game. Thankfully, a lot of this side content is worthwhile, and I personally found Heart Attack mode to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. In Heart Attack, you have to meet your girlfriend's "demands" in order to win her affection in addition to juggling your overall time. Girlfriends, am I right? All they do is nag, nag, nag. "Baby, take the trash out. Baby, you need to pay your bills. Baby, collect all the coins while drifting between traffic." Ugh. The ol' ball and chain...

The only real problem I had with OutRun 2006 is one that is uniquely me. I've spoken before about how I've been playing most PS2 games off a hard drive, and whether I just grabbed a bad dump of the game or there's some issue with the way Coast 2 Coast is being read in general, the soundtrack would not play for me at all. This is kind of a big deal, as anyone familiar with OutRun as a series would probably tell you. Listening to the radio is not only a major part of tying these games to the experience of racing through California, but the soundtrack is just really damn good. I resorted to playing the OST on my laptop, so this wasn't a total loss, but playing a deconstructed OutRun is less than ideal. Maybe I'll shell out 60$ for a used copy one day, but I'm not sure I like OutRun 2006 that much.

I'm going to eschew the Summah Index Scale for this one and say that the science on it is settled already. Probably for the best, as I've run out of goofy vehicle based "tests." Scraped the bottom of that barrel so hard I've broken through. Buncha bones on the other side... Concerning, but let's not dwell on that.

Not only is this patently Summah, but I can also see it entering into my annual rotation of games as something I can end the season on. That "trip back home" is just too perfect, and it is not something I am content with experiencing only once.

Going back to this to get all the achievements for both the main game and Separate Ways only reinforced the problems I already had. Its overlength and pacing problems coupled with the insane amount of RNG makes something I normally love (speedrunning RE games) into an arduous nightmare. I still did it, because I have Brain Problems, but I'm not going to do it again on PS5 like I did for RE2 and 3.

As a quick aside, it is hilarious that the 10 dollar DLC is longer than REmak3. Too bad Ada's voice actor is somehow even worse in it.

A genuine love letter to gaming - specifically the fifth and sixth generations - that champions the virtue of video games as social conduits without ever making it explicit in its text. It Takes Two is perhaps the apex of Girlfriend Gaming, but also acknowledges the general magnetic pull of video games as shared experiences that draw us together - and this is an experience that can be easily enjoyed with partners, pals and family.

The story seems to be getting a rough reception from players here, but I appreciated a new game that isn’t yet another low-fantasy fable about finding the Amulet of Kwisatz-Haderach to prevent The Third Reckoning or whatever. Sure, other games have tried the romance genre on for size, but it’s almost always about the early blossoms of teenage and pseudoteenage lust-love affairs - Twitter oft-demonstrates that games writers and “narrative designers” are still emotionally and intellectually 15 years old, so it shouldn’t come as much surprise that divorce and parenthood are still remote concepts for video game stories. As a bumbling stay-at-home dad partnered up with a 12-hour-working doctor who’s constantly on a career-induced brain-edge, perhaps my girlfriend and I are just easy marks for this slight, specific Mrs. Doubtfire-esque story about a long-term adult relationship struggling to keep its flame alive, but I thought it was softly thoughtful, sincere and well-intentioned. I agree that the dialogue is over-resplendent with Uncharted-isms (“No no no NO!” “Oh ya GOTTA be kiddin me!”), but please give Hazelight some credit for managing to fill a 12-hour experience with a near-constant stream of dialogue that doesn’t often make you wanna claw your ears out - a rare, praiseworthy feat for any video game.

Reviewing the “gameplay” here is nigh-on impossible - taking this thing apart would be like individually analysing the content of every microgame in a WarioWare title - so I’ll just echo the general consensus and say that it’s incredibly impressive how freely this thing leaps branch-to-branch in a wide, shallow forest of genre and styles filled with obvious but welcome homage. As a long-term gamer working side-by-side with a new recruit, I took a lot of pleasure in telling my partner about Mario Sunshine and Diablo II and Dance Dance Revolution. FULL JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY DISCLOSURE: When I found the Ocarina of Time room, Josef Fares may as well have handed me a crisp $100 bill, patted me on the arse and sent me on my way. I’m an easy mark.

Was this thing too corny? Probably. Is it too long? Definitely. Did I have a lot of fun sharing a video game with some I care about? Absolutely - and that’s more valuable than what I thought of the dialogue or specific mechanics. I think this is a perfect example of a game that defies rational critique by virtue of its virtues and a commitment to doing things a little bit differently - and in the midst of a medium that’s constantly trying to deconstruct and twist and prove its own maturity by doing the same thing for Sad Dads again and again, something that speaks sincerely holds genuine, unironic value to me.

Having beaten the first five Dragon Quest games, this is easily the best. Part of this is the upgrade in presentation compared to the NES games, but the beautiful storyline steals the show. The generational structure is of course brilliant. There are some really sweet and just powerful moments, and taken as a whole, it really does feel epic. I wasn't really choked up at any point, but the theming is genius, and the twists are great too. This game's sentimental feel is greatly complimented by the lush soundtrack, which definitely hits a certain nostalgic vibe.

The gameplay introduces some major conveniences over previous Dragon Quest entries, like auto-targeting the next available enemy, using L as a context-sensitive button, smoother movement in the overworld, and having vastly more inventory space. The dungeon designs are mostly greatly improved as well.

The game design does still have some of that old crust on it though, particularly in the late-game when the sense of direction gets too obtuse and dungeons really lay it on thick with the random encounters. The appeal of Dragon Quest's gameplay for a lot of people is its bread-and-butter classic turn-based combat, but I've played a fair few other JRPGs with more interesting twists on that, and I definitely noticed myself getting bored with battles later on, save for some intense boss fights. (Granted, this is coming off an elongated Dragon Quest marathon beginning with DQ2.)

I don't think Dragon Quest V is one of the very best RPGs I've ever played, but it is still a great game, and it's a shame it didn't come out in the US when it was new in Japan. I think it would've made quite an impact considering there still aren't many games that cover one person's story from childhood to parenthood like this.

All 5 of the Dragon Quests I've played so far have two major goals in mind with each entry. One is to expand the scope of the world, the other is to introduce further mechanical combat depth while still being firmly rooted in its cozy, simple to pick up gameplay. DQ5 succeeds in both, with a whopping runtime of 35-40 hours, the longest it's been yet. I knew not to expect huge changes, this isn't Final Fantasy. "Dragon Quest, but bigger" is up my alley as long as there's a good diversity of content, and this one makes good use of the SNES to bring a larger variety of places and events that should keep you engaged.

It's just a shame that the series is so heavily focused around scale and combat depth, but five entries in and it's still heavily neglecting quality of life improvements. Don't get me wrong, there are some fixes here! You can actually see the stat differences on armor/weapons while browsing shops, your party finally auto-targets enemies that are alive instead of trying to hit ones that are already dead, there's a dedicated button to talking to NPC's instead of having to use the command menu, medals don't take up inventory space, and the Tactics system is back as an option, instead of something that you're forced to use.

The problem is that Dragon Quest has been drip feeding its QoL from day one, and after playing 5 of these suckers, you really find yourself thinking they could've used that extra year of development time to address some of other bigger inconveniences that really should've been fixed by at least DQ4. The survival horror inventory, the encounter rates, the sluggish movement, inability to buy stuff in bulk, consumables not stacking, the repetitive town music, it's all still a problem here. The developers have used the SNES to deliver a greater sense of scale, but the overall systems and presentation still have the antiquation of an NES RPG.

Because of this, I've found myself getting more annoyed with this Dragon Quest than either DQ3 or DQ4. I'm by no means getting tired of the formula, which is as pleasant as ever. But I am getting weary of the lack of convenience that could elevate this formula even higher. It'd be nice to have less reasons to rely on the fast forward button, y'know? My time is limited too, and though I'm willing to give an RPG much more patience to prove itself than other genres, there are limits if my character's gonna spend these 40 hours walking at just above a snail's pace.

With that out of the way, it's not all doom and gloom with this game. The story is the strongest it's been yet. The generational structure, combined with the looming threat that approaches ever sooner, gives the game some very strong and impactful moments as time becomes out of your control. It also likes to play around with the conventions of RPG storytelling much like DQ4 did with the merchant chapter. Placing you in the shoes of someone else but the hero, and doing a couple fun things with it, almost bordering on meta.

My only gripe is that the main villain does not come anywhere close to the impact of those individual moments, and was so generically evil, that a week later and I don't remember who they were, what was their name, or what they looked like. Which ultimately, causes the finale of the game to fall flatter than the rest of it, like it's yet another Dragon Quest final boss, with yet another two phases, and one more "How can this be...!" speech on top of the pile.

The game also introduces a monster recruitment system, a prototype Pokemon of sorts. This is where the increase of combat depth comes from in this one, as certain important spells can only be obtained via these monsters, and there is no guarantee you'll get them. After all, recruiting monsters isn't something you can control, it's a random event that may happen at the end of every battle. What makes this more confounding is that only certain monsters can be recruited, and if you're not using an online guide, you won't be able to tell which. Let alone the fact that some of these monsters have a mere 1/4 chance to be caught, but some of them can be a 1/64, or even 1/256, necessitating the use of very heavy grinding if you really want them all. But I wouldn't recommend it. Something I've quickly learned about DQ5, is that it's a much better game if you just let luck take its course, and see what sort of recruits you accidentally stumble upon, instead of trying to gain the system to catch'em all. I'm sure the point was that on subsequent playthroughs, you could get some monsters that you didn't get before. Some of them, people have never seen in their life, but perhaps you might be the one who did... and that's the appeal.

Another reason to not grind for recruits, is because you eventually find out that certain 1/4 recruits are extremely competent at their jobs, more than enough to beat the game and its secret optional boss. The game is always balanced around giving you the right recruits for the right sequences, while the rarer stuff is just something for insane, or very lucky people to get. Unfortunately, while RPG's are generally about just choosing the one thing that works for you the most, I do wish I was incentivized to switch my monsters around more. Some of the recruits completely paled in comparison to the one that I warmed up to using for the rest of the journey, the Golem. An absolute beast of a tank, that had better stat growths, defense, and attack power than any other recruit I received, yet through its 1/4 chance of recruitment, was very easy to obtain.

And I mean, it's cool at first, but it makes you retrospectively look at the entire recruitment system and realize just how uneven so much of it is, with so many recruits that you're gonna try out for an hour and then switch back to the Golem every single time. There are many mediocre recruits. And there are only two or three really good ones. As for the rest, prepare to grind for hours if you ever wanna see them, but why do that if Golem exists? Personally, if there was a better system implemented that didn't require on just pure RNG chance, and allowed me to have better control over how I recruited monsters, DQ5 wouldn't have needed to run into the problem of having to compromise its own system by just giving you the best shit through the lowest possible amount of effort.

This review has been kinda all over the place, which is exactly how I view DQ5. A game that shot for some really big things, a game that I'm pretty sure I enjoyed throughout most of my runtime, but I kept asking "Man, wouldn't it better if they did it like this?" Outdated design just comes with the territory when you're playing an early SNES RPG, but when you make your world way more huge and sprawling, you can't just leave your NES jank as is, you gotta speed it up to accommodate this kind of scope. I don't think I'm gonna touch the original version of this game again, however, I get the strong feeling that all of my gripes will be addressed by the time I get to the DQ5 remakes. It is then that my praise for the story and the monster recruitment system is likely gonna outweigh my amount of complaints.

"Remastered" feels like they are underselling just how much work had to have been put into this. Almost every element feels like it had to have been redone for this. I have no way of knowing, but it's a very well-done re-release of what really feels like a forgotten game.

This isn't my favorite Turok game: the enemies are nowhere near as dynamically animated or reactive as Turok 2's, and the level design is very inconsistent between flat, square boxes and more inspired levels. The shotgun still sounds like a Turok shotgun though, and blowing enemies apart is still as wicked as it is in any Turok game.

Plus, Danielle is a cool character design. I wish there was something more being done with her, but I won't complain about a good thing.

Would recommend Turok 1 and 2 over this, but real Turokaholics will want to complete their collection with this.

I beat the main story and got all of the Wonder Seeds. This is a satisfying level of completion for me, at least enough to mark this "finished", though I may come back later and try to get all of the additional medals.

This is the first 2D Super Mario game I've played since Yoshi's Island that feels like real care and love went into it. Beautiful art design, game design that's so intuitive and fun it feels effortless, and that perfect Nintedo-style difficulty curve. Not very challenging for people who just want to finish the story, but a really satisfying extra challenge for players who want to be more thorough, plus an extra challenge even beyond that for the super completionists. It's perfectly calibrated, they got it just right.

Really great game. Might go up to 5 stars with time.

UPDATE 12/28/2023: Officially 100%'d the game. The final final special level took me about 100 tries, but I finished it and I have all 6 medals now. :)

A mind-bending metatextual noir and folk horror pulp novel wrapped up into a pseudo-survival horror package. Fantastic, the presentation is second to none. I've gotten a bit tired of style focused on realism, but Remedy are always making it necessary. The textural detail is livened greatly by the best HDR and raytracing implementation I've seen.

I think the narrative could use some tightening, pulling the game together more cohesively, but it is a fascinating story. It lets you be lost a bit, grasping at threads, and never really fully ties it up cleanly. Saga is a very welcomed addition, it allows the game to breathe between two worlds and helps to make each new section feel more fresh. The way the story wrestles with the suffering of characters created by a fiction out of their control, one they are forced into, is tense and raw. I've seen Silent Hill 2 named a few times in reference to what this has brought to the medium and while I disagree, I still think this is an extraordinary entry in horror and the medium. Remedy, blending narrative, live-action, liminal thresholds, and meta-fiction continue to bring one-of-a-kind experiences.