This was a fun little addition to the game, Yuffie feels great to control and the boss fights were decently engaging. The best part for me however is the Fort Condor minigame, something I found so much fun that I wish there was more of it. The writing however felt very tropey and not interesting to me. The game follows Yuffie and another character, one I found so bland I can't even remember his name even though I beat it an hour before writing this. Who knows if it will become relevant to the overall narrative the Remake trilogy wants to tell, but as of right now the story felt a bit pointless.

I mainly played Dragon Quest 2 from this collection so the review is going to focus on that. I did try Dragon Quest 1 for an hour and enjoyed it, but not enough to replay the entire game.

Dragon Quest 2 is an improvement over Dragon Quest 1 in ever way really! The scale of the adventure is much grander, having the entirety of DQ1's world inside of it as one small part of a massive world. There are multiple party members, and enemies appear in flocks making combat a lot more interesting.

The opening section of this game left a really good impression on me, it was fun doing the quests of unlocking the other party members and exploring the starter continent. I was sure I was going to enjoy this game more than the first game. But then you get to the boat and the entire game fully opens up. This is something a lot of JRPGs do where the game starts of linear but expands as you get further in. With DQ2 however, the map is so big and they don't give you much of any lead on where to go. You are meant to freely explore on your own and discover things on your own pace. The game does tell you about a continent to the east right before you get the boat, and I strongly recommend anyone planning on playing this game to go there first. It is where the game wants you to go and you even get a world map!

I did not go this way first however as I didn't realize just how open the game would be from this point on. This led to me sailing around the open sea having no idea where I was for a looong time, completely lost. The enemy encounter rate in this game is pretty intense as well, so not only was I lost but I had to do battles all the time while finding my way back.

After this the goal of the game is to find crests hidden all around the world. It could have been a really fun adventure, but the random encounters really ruin the fun of exploring. It is something I dislike about the entire jrpg genre, and I am very glad modern games have moved away from it. I ended up stopping the adventure before I reached the end as I found myself not having fun exploring.

Dragon Quest 2 really is an improvement over the original, but the scale of the game hurt the experience for me in the long run. If they had toned down the random encounter rate maybe I would have enjoyed it more. One day I may return with a walkthrough to get to the end, but as of now I've had my fill with it.

Even after all these years, I still find the idea of a crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney actually existing to be one of the weirdest things in video games. It is such a weird concept, yet has spawned a 10+ game long series!

At this point Kingdom Hearts may be my most replayed game next to Bloodborne. This was my 6th playthrough I think, and I like it more and more every time I play it! I think it has to do with how the game rewards your knowledge with it. There are secrets spread everywhere around the many worlds you explore, and by this point I know each world really well. It is one of those few games I know the entire layout of in my head.

The gameplay of this game however is very hard to go back to, especially after how much it improves with KH2. Even so I have a soft spot for the simplicity of this game's combat even if it comes down to spamming attack and sometimes casting a Gravity here and there. It definitely isn't as flashy as the series eventually gets but I find it relaxing to fight and grind for all the different materials needed to create the Ultima Weapon.

Speaking of, I really enjoy how this game does its post game! I am one of those who actually enjoys the process of getting synthesis materials. I really like how there are hidden gimmicky minibosses you have to defeat to get some of the materials, it adds some variety to an otherwise very samey combat system. The superbosses are also a very cool addition, and gives you something to actually use the Ultima Weapon on as by the time you've crafted it you'll already be 95% through the game.

I've been studying Japanese for the last few years, and sitting down to play this game being able to understand about 80% of what was being said in Japanese was such a rewarding experience. This is very nostalgic return to one of my favorite childhood games. When I first played this back in 2012 I barely knew English and learned lots of vocabulary like "mayor" or "town hall" through it. Now I get to do the same with Japanese, already having learned "ぴったり", "役場" and "村長". I will definitely play this regularly for a while to immerse myself in the language!

As a big fan of rhythm games and a new Persona 5 fan, I had to check this game out. It is exactly what I wanted, and I really enjoyed my time getting the platinum trophy in it! The gameplay is really addictive, making it easy to just get in the flow of following the beat and the music. The dialogue is also surprisingly funny, making me laugh multiple times while doing the social links. My only complaint is that the song list is quite small and filled with duplicates, but they did get most of my favorite tracks from the main game.

This is a very interesting version of the game. I do really like the modernized look and I think switching from the old DND inspired spell slot system to an MP based system was a good idea on paper. Adding new dungeons also seems like a good addition.

The problem is that the combat is veeeery boring. This version is so easy that you can literally play through most of the game by just spamming attack over and over again. It doesn't help that half the jobs in the game are specifically designed to be played this way. For Warrior and Monk, attacking is the only thing they're good at so you're going to have them choose attack 99% of the time. Thief has one more option but you won't use it regularly. The mages are a little better as they have access to multiple spells, but enemies die so fast that you rarely ever use anything besides damage and healing spells.

This leads to all random encounters being about either pressing attack or using your strongest damage spell, making the combat truly feel like fluff. Bosses are the only times the combat gets to shine, and I admit that I do like how epic some of them feel in this version.

You could still make this interesting by making the game feel dangerous, something the NES version succeeded in. Dungeons were scary to navigate as you only had a limited amount of resources, and every battle risked spending them. But due to the changes in the magic system in this version, you're never really at the risk of running out of magic. You can easily stock up on 99 ethers and potions as well, meaning all risk is gone. With the danger removed from dungeons, so is the thrill. What you're left with is many different mazes to get lost in while every 5 seconds you'll have to spam attack in a menu. There is still some enjoyment from finding more powerful weapons or armor, but the only job that can use them is Warrior so if you don't have one on your team then it is just stuff to sell.

Now with combat and exploration that feels like fluff, and multiple brand new dungeons that are gigantic mazes filled with random encounters, you'll see why I'm so negative to this version. The new dungeons are soooo large and easy to get lost in, and the combat is so unengaging that I actually got really annoyed while exploring them. I really disliked the new dungeons I tried. They are optional thankfully, but when you step into one there is no exit so you have to finish it. Being lost in a gigantic maze for an hour is not fun.

I don't like being negative, there's just very little I found enjoyable about this version. It is still Final Fantasy 1, and the pros of the other versions are in this one as well. The pacing is overall pretty enjoyable, starting very linear and opening up once you get your boat and unlock the full sea. Doing Bahamut's trial and getting your job upgrades still feels satisfying to this day, and unlocking the airship and flying over the map is very freeing.

FF1 is a decent game and a good first step for the series, but if you want any form of challenge I'd rather recommend the NES or Pixel Remaster version.

The addition of a No-Build mode has made this game really accessible and fun for casual players like me. The same can be said about filling the lobby with bots, although this has mixed results. On one hand it is satisfying to be able to get some free kills without any effort, but I do wish they put up some challenge. They are barely able to hit you at all even if you stand still, making it uninteresting to face up against them after a few matches. That being said the core gameplay is really fun, and the way it reinvents itself every season means I never really get bored of checking it out every now and then.

Really charming as usual for the series, the cases in this game are almost all really good! I did have problems with the second case not having a trial for some reason, which wouldn't be that much of an issue except I kept waiting for the trial to happen for two hours before realizing it just didn't have one. Other than that the rest of the cases had some really satisfying twists and reveals. This game has you grasping for straws very often, almost every case feeling unwinnable in the beginning and you just throw anything you can at it in hopes something will reveal the truth. It made this game feel very tense and therefore more satisfying to finally discover the truth!

To be honest I didn't enjoy the first case in this game much because of some leaps in logic that I didn't agree with at all. It was the first time in The Great Ace Attorney where I felt completely lost on what to do, having to look up a guide. But then the rest of the cases came, and I loved them! This game has you unearthing a really big conspiracy, and seeing the pieces fit together is as satisfying as this series gets. The finale was a bit too reliant on a deus ex machina for me to rate it any higher, but this is a very good game and my new favorite in the series.