this series is all about asking simple questions
for the first one the dev asked : what if sonic 2D was cool, and then went on to answer that question.

then for the second game he dared ask : what if sonic 3D was not only cool but functional too, and then went on to make an amazing game that its so responsive and balls to the wall fun that i still cannot fathon it actually exists.

then the crazy dickhead went on and asked : what if spark 2 was epic ? and went on to make one of the best games i've played.

somehow its even more responsive than the second game, its a perfect sonic game, it doesn't restrain you, it doesn't scare itself and lock you into a straightfoward momentum or a pseudo game cutscene, or jank you into clunky deaths that were never your fault.
no, this is a concise, straightfoward and confident game that will deliver mechanics you can rely on, and challenges to put those mechanics to the test, and not once did they fail me, even at the absolute gauntlet that is the last level (that you gotta beat with limited lives, for once i like limited lives).
story wise it tries to hold itself but you can clearly see the bonkers going on in a larger scale, but this time its a bit more well developed, even if it still goes dragon sonic and the sevel jutsu balls revengeance, i love this game, if this game was a man, id let it go to bed with me.
as a bonus the dev even ported all levels from spark 2 into this one with all the perks of having a upgraded mechanic and movements, the delight of replaying these is unmatched

are there problems ? sure, not being able to remake the keyboard controls is silly, forcing some levels in order to prgress, lack of last power ups, a not so great last boss.

but i'm willing to look these as just rough parts of a diamond, this is it, the perfect sonic game. no, spark made its own identity, now sonic has to keep up if he wanna prove he has quality over spark

charming, bold and honest game that i am unfortunally not a fan of.

final fantasy 3 for the nes is one of my favorite games of the era, playing this game made me realize i was playing a final fantasy 3 without the excuse of being a nes game, because all the nes limitations are here but with the coat of paint that the ps1 allowed.
a dinky map mixed with all the other items that takes 30 seconds to load.
confusing and at times criptic progression structure that will make you accidentally stumble into the progress after the whole day looking for it through the whole map.
games from a generation before allowed items and magic to have descriptions, yet this one really is trying to cosplay as a nes game and simply not have it.
a random encounter that is not random, it will trigger every 20 steps and the spell that avoids random encounters lasts for 1 minute, MANA IS A LIMITED RESOURCE.
at some point you will hit level 50 by nothing but the silly random encounter and then nothing is a challenge anymore, just a nuisance, the last boss requires level 37 to beat with relative ease, so its not even challenging, just annoying.
so many unrelated missions and dungeons my lord, if you trim the fat, this game could be 11 hours long, yet they stretched a nes-like rpg into being 60 hours long.

power to people who likes this game, it genuinelly has a very cute charm to it, but its with games like this that i get convinced that backloggd score is given based on people that rate games based on how they remember the game is, not on recent playthroughs.
a friend of mine who love this game gave a quote that made me understand the situation quite well ''its one of those japanese games mean't to last 2 to 5 months'' i wouldn't agree with him if i haven't found out that this game helped sell guide magazines like crazy, which is a design i despise, making stuff obtuse and cryptic for the sake of selling guide or extending game lenght, its artificial.

i though i was alone and it only didn't click for me, but i recently checked a reviewer i follow (check @Ardwyw_mp3 he's cool) and apparently i'm being too nice to this game.

power to people who love it, but honestly i don't see myself opening it again, not to deny its charm tho, this game being 11 hours long would be a absolute blast

great game, but not better than the first.

lets start with what i came here for, that sweet sweet remedy weirdness, cranked up to 11 in this game, now in a culmination of all their past works, even ones they couldn't add somehow they did in a sneaky way, a very good conclusion to a series i became very fond of, just not as perfect as i hoped it to be, i have a few points to discuss regarding my statement.

combat : this is a downgrade in my opinion, people have a misconception that the first game's combat is dull and clunky when in actuallity its simple yet hard to master, you had full control when you could stun the enemies, you had perfect way of planning things ''7 bullets for big guys, 3 for smaller ones'' with enough skill you could stun a whooping 8 enemies at the same time and have 2 seconds to focus fire on the more dangerous ones while managing your distance and your dodging game, rapid fire 4 bullets on lesser ones that get close and scrape by with relative safety and few resources wasted, the light was a rechargeable meter that you used , if you played skillfully you'd only have to use the batteries if you fucked up and needed a panic button, otherwise managing your stun game was great.
here however its a different story, its a clunkier and less reliable resident evil 2 remake, its ok i like re 2 r combat, but i feel the first game already had a great blend of survival and its own identity, here the game doesn't even have faith in its own system, if you die in a section with only 1 battery left, the game on hard difficulty will still give you 2 extra batteries, as if its saying ''its ok we effed up the ballance, have a freebie'', the camera is less reliable because they too wanted some of that re 2 survival style, purposefully making the tps camera a little more clunky than the normal one, i've seen people do crazy things with it, its still possible, but i don't feel this is a upgrade, its another thing entirely, there's also a few nitpicks about the menus, they are a bit clunky with mouse, they are not as clicky as the game they are trying to emulate.

the bugs : oh dear, getting stuck in geometry being forced to restart (in a game you save manually in safe zones..) geometry clipping so hard it covers the place you need to walk, i've seen it make all walls invisible and spoil me where items are supposed to be, an enemy refused to die at some point, a normal grunt took a lot of bullets and decided that he was not having it, killed me, upon respawn he died to 3 bullets, 3 times the mind palace refused to let me leave, i had to restart.

saga : i like saga, we need more video game moms, they are being shadowed by video game dads, but this ain't it chief, they done my girl very very dirty, as if to sabotage her.
for starters, her upgrades are nowhere near as useful as alan, alan is getting upgrades like ''chance of free bullet'' while she gets stuff like ''10% extra damage if enemy is stunned'', this is for the shotgun mind you, a weapon that will always kill in 2 to 3 bullets, the 10% doesnt make a difference and there are many of these cases, her upgrades are just not as useful.
her dialogue, while alan is throwing some poetic stuff ala mr.wake as usual, saga is throwing little quips and stating the obvious, i get remedy likes to be inspired but last i checked this was inspired by twin peaks, not avengers.
i don't like that it seems she got the short stick of the writing crew, it enchances my theory that she got sabotaged, specially with the fact that they also forced her to make a racist quote outta nowhere.
i'd love a crazy grumpy cop mom high on caffeine angry this is her 10th case this week because the higher ups don't give her a break, instead i got a rather bland character that feels inconcise with the other ones, saga deserves better, much better than what she got (it came to my attention as of late that remedy hired SBI to write her, and i now see the problem, come on guys i believe remedy and sam are very much capable of writing a great black mother character) inclusive characters deserve better writing, they deserve a spot in gaming, but they deserve great writing behind them to accompany, no one without the other, am i saying i wish she was annoying or grumpy ? probably, it worked for alex casey, why wouldn't it work for her ? make her weird, make her angry, make her tired, make her happy ! but make her interesting.

the mind palace : very weird addition, one that you can ignore most of the game and it will only be mandatory on two sections of the game, i played twice and second playthrough i was curious how much i could bullshit my way without touching that room, turns out the entire game, while the writing room is mandatory and influences the levels, not only that but they also give free items if you explore them enough, SEE HOW I FEEL SAGA GOT SABOTAGED ??

overall its a strange feeling, i like this game, i feel its a satisfactory conclusion, i like the characters but i don't feel it is an evolution of the first game like many say, i'd go back to the first game many times and get better at the combat to the point i can do a not hit run, this one ? two times and i'm already out of the loop, woops sorry, spiral...

also a little question, why when alan tried to strong will himself out of the dark place with his strenght of mind, he got beat up, mentally and physically into submission until he's but a husk of a man, but someone else can love themselves out of the dark place just like that ? seems mildly unfair