This feels like something that would be spit out by an AI if you fed it the script of Higurashi and asked it to write a new chapter. Nothing unique or interesting, just story beats from other chapters strung together into something that vaguely resembles a new story. And yet it's all written by a human; a work that truly demonstrates the ability of humans to write something as soulless and vapid as that regurgitated by an AI.
The premise of this being a sort of "worst case scenario" feels like it should at least be interesting in some way, but it feels more as if the writer has accidentally happened upon this through sheer unoriginality causing them to combine every bad thing that happens in the other chapters together, as opposed to any actual attempt at creating an original premise.

It's all so depressing. Practically the only reason anyone would even bother to read this in the first place is out of a desperate attempt to grasp for more Higurashi, to reexperience those halcyon days. This is something that GouSotsu deliberately plays into, to great effect, but here it's all an accident. The writing doesn't play into the idea that it's SUPPOSED to be inane, it's just truly as insipid as the readers desire to experience it in the first place.
A fascinating work, in all of the wrong ways.

I enjoyed quite a bit of this game, but there's also a lot that I just found super tedious and uninteresting. I really think Zelda games are a lot better when they open up and let the player go and do things in the order they want, and despite throwing the player into an ostensibly vast and open world, Wind Waker constantly goes out of it's way to do the exact opposite of that.

Outside of two dungeons that can be done in any order, pretty much everything in this game's main story is super streamlined. Given the structure of the game's world, this means that at points the game literally just has to have your boat go "lol nope, I'm not going that way" to make sure the player doesn't go off and do something they're not supposed to, which is super egregious in this type of game. And outside of the main quest, there isn't really a whole lot to do. Every quadrant has one island, and outside of the major story islands, pretty much every island has one or two puzzles and a treasure map attached to it, after which it pretty much becomes deadspace on the map. This arguably isn't any different from how a typical Zelda game's sidequest material would function, but with the more open structure of Wind Waker, it just makes the whole world feel so much more empty.

This problem is REALLY exacerbated by the game's main gimmick: sailing. Every one of this items is 2-3 minutes apart with very little interesting to do in between. You might encounter a copy-and-pasted enemy base, or maybe even an sea enemy that's more obnoxious to deal with than it's worth, but for the most part you pretty much just set the wind in the direction you need to go, and wait for the boat to get there. It gets super tedious, especially later on when you've already cleared most of the minor islands, and the fast travel isn't good enough to alleviate this.

There IS a lot of good stuff here though. Of course, the graphics are quite charming, and outside of the extremely over-exaggerated depth of field effect, most of it has aged quite well. The story is also probably the best of any Zelda game I've played so far, and the ending is especially good. But overall, I don't think it's quite as strong of a game as Ocarina of Time (and I'm not someone who's particularly fond of that game in the first place).

Tingle is a fucking con-man in this game. The quest for the triforce wasn't that bad but dear lord those prices?!? And he's a criminal! What happened to sweet Majora's Mask Tingle huh?!?

Anyway.

The game is really good.
Until you start traversing the over world.
I love the setting, the characters (especially Tetra), even Ganon caught me off guard with some surprising depth despite his absence for most of the game. The combat as well was really fun and flashy.
I adore the graphics and it allowed for one of the most expressive Links that I've seen. The humour was also really good and never failed to bring a laugh.

The game regularly asks it's characters to find courage, and through that courage we see character growth in characters like Prince Zomali. The game keeps this motif of courage ever present, and tells you that through courage anything is possible.

I started this game 4 years ago when I first started getting back into playing single player games. My friend and I were playing it simultaneously, we got about 5 hours in and then we never continued it even though we both enjoyed it at the time. Fast forward to March 1, 2024 when the legend Akira Toriyama passed away, the sole reason I got into anime which eventually led to JRPG's. After the news I felt like I had to experience this game rather sooner than later so I hopped in the stu and started it from the beginning.

Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece that still holds up to this day. I can't believe that something of this caliber came out two months before I was even born, just crazy to think about lol. There's so many awesome details whether it be related to the story, the lovely sprites or even the gameplay itself. Obviously with a story about time traveling, things will be different in the future if you change the past but I love the way it's utilized here. It is best showcased during everyone's side quests during The Fated Hour, in my opinion. Minor spoiler and this is just an example but there is a certain part where you're trying to get an item but this person won't give it to you. So you go into the past and give their ancestor something they wanted for free, they in return won't forget about our good deed and then teach their children all about kindness. We now go back into the future, now this person with the item is very kind and gives it to us instead. So freaking cool and this was a pretty minor event from a damn side quest.

My favorite part about the game was the combat and by that I mean figuring out each and every boss. These encounters were all so different, with unique mechanics and gimmicks. It felt really satisfying figuring out their weaknesses as well as timing your turns to heal yourself after devastating attacks. Gotta love the fact that the combo moves are indeed literally combined moves, like how Frog's Slurp and Ayla's kiss becomes Slurp Kiss. Also can't forget that water is so good that they made water 2, that's crazy..

I love all the characters, especially Frog and Ayla for carrying me throughout the game. Everyone else... please forgive me. They all had their moments though and I teared up when I saw them in the animated cutscene during the credits. Just peak.

The soundtrack is phenomenal, every single piece is a banger and I definitely can not pick a favorite because there's just too many mighty fine tracks.

Very glad that I gave Chrono Trigger another shot after 4 years, I've always wanted to beat it ever since I started my little JRPG journey and now I have!

Rest in peace, Akira Toriyama. Thank you for everything.