i seriously did not expect to enjoy this game nearly as much as i did? i preordered it, because some friends and i thought the E3 trailer was funny. which, yes, the game is very unintentionally funny (jack literally listens to limp bizkit. this is not a joke), but it's also really good.

i'm grateful i went into this having played final fantasy 1 in advance just so i could catch those extra details, but honestly i think it's fine to play without that. the story starts out very... awkwardly. but i swear you have to be patient with it, because it seriously does make sense eventually. it absolutely blew my mind with a nice blend of predictable and unpredictable twists.

the gameplay is an absolute blast, too. i really loved how much experimenting with and building up every class was encouraged. i don't know if i'll 100% this game, but i definitely want to go through and finish some of the postgame content at some point.

i have only one gripe relevant enough to bring up, the fact that the world travel felt a bit hollow. i think this game's fine not being open world or anything like that, but i feel there could have been something done to make the campaign screen feel more alive.

speaking as someone who doesn't have any sort of nostalgic connection to metal gear (i only just started playing the series) i really think this is the perfect conclusion to the series as a whole

i loved the gameplay in this one so much, the level design was on point, especially some of those boss fights!! i just wish there was more of it between all the cutscenes (i don't really mind, they were very fun to watch)

it's super neat seeing how far the graphics have come, as well! but honestly i think this game is a bit ugly, especially compared to the past games. it's meant to be realistic, of course, but it doesn't have that same stylistic charm that the other solid games have. it's just a bit...bland looking

my main gripe has to be how forced/rushed some parts of the story felt, but ultimately it's not something i really mind. the rest of the game and all the homages to the past more than made up for it, in my opinion

i reaaally wish i liked this game more :-( it's basically everything i love in a game (psychological horror walking sim? yes please!) but idk, maybe my expectations were too high.

i'll give credit where credit is due, the atmosphere of this game is absolutely harrowing, without using any jumpscares...mostly. i felt complete and utter dread while going through some of the zones in this game, even though i knew nothing could kill me or jump out at me.

but i don't know. maybe i need to think on this game some more, or maybe i went through it too quickly. i might look into some of the secret stuff too. i just hate this feeling that i missed something.

probably the best expansion we've had since legion!!! seriously, i haven't been this excited about wow in a long time

as always the sound and art teams carried, but the leveling is probably the most fun i've had in any expansion, dragonriding feels absolutely incredible too. honest to god i want to be able to ride my dragon isles dragons everywhere else.

it's too early to say how the story's gonna be, but so far i have hope! i'm really liking how they're handling wrathion so far in particular. there's clearly tons of thought put into the worldbuilding, you can ask just about every named npc questions about their own personal history, like the meaning of their name and whatnot!

overall this expansion just feels like blizz is finally listening? sorry, this is just one big word vomit, but my patch 10.0 takeaway is that it's so refreshing.

this is one of three games i've beaten, and then immediately went back to replay. it's been 2 weeks since the day i originally completed it and i still can't find the words for what this game means to me.

going into it...i knew it was going to be one of those games that would change me forever. but god i wasn't prepared for it (i don't think i ever would have been prepared tbqh). it's....a lot, but in a weirdly refreshing sort of way?

what i can say is that i urge anyone reading this to play this game. i've already bought it for two friends (twice! at full price!) and i'm seriously considering buying it for more. there's just so much love poured into the world and its narrative that i can gush about for hours without end.

the art direction is stunning, the music is stunning, the only complaint i really even have is that sometimes the player pathing and camera movement can get a little buggy, but it didn't detract from any of my enjoyment. please god play this game

less of a game (in the traditional sense) and more of a novel, but it really got me thinking about the potential of 3D visual novels. at its core, i think this game was a very well done experiment for that exact idea.

the story itself is beautifully crafted, and just enough is left open to interpretation to have had my head spinning for days after. it's the sort of writing where you can tell that any question you may have does have an answer, but the author(s) chose to leave it open, which i love.

the thing that really got me about this game, though, is the amount of detail in it. seriously, i spent a very long while reading through all the book titles on every bookshelf, and each and every title has some bearing on the character they're placed near.

even after all of that, this game didn't really strike me as anything very...special? it's a unique foray into this sort of interactive story, and a great experience to boot. but ultimately it's just that, a very well-crafted story that so happens to be interactive.

maybe i'm just being picky, but i dunno. something about this game just made the untapped potential scream out to me