The gameplay is changed significantly in this one from the first, and unfortunately it doesn't really work for me. They attempted a more realistic leveling system where performing actions levels up the corresponding stat. In theory this would lead to your characters specializing in whatever they use most, but in practice it's tedious and you have to exploit it in unintended ways to level anything to high levels.

The story is far darker than the first, to the point where you can just assume everyone you meet is going to die shortly after they stop being useful. I do commend them for attempting a more serious plot and characters, and it does work for the most part.

Overall this is one of the weakest FF games, and I'd recommend skipping it if you're only interested in playing the good ones. It has a few good ideas, but the tedious gameplay really holds it back.

edit: killing the final boss and then going to hell and kicking his ass AGAIN was so funny I added .5 stars to my final score

Played this as part of the pixel remaster collection. I've played the games before, but it's been a while and I wanted to replay them and see how they held up.

I decided to do a challenge run of four white mages this time, which ended up being grindy and not very fun for reasons entirely under my control. Other than that the gameplay is fine, there's not too many options for combat and it's more about resource management as you traverse dungeons.

The graphics and remastered soundtrack feel great, and there's options to switch to the original OST and between the modern and classic fonts. The QoL changes added also make a huge difference and let you fine-tune your experience. You can choose to increase or lower the exp gained from battles, or turn off random encounters altogether if you'd rather explore in peace.

I'm not too familiar with the version differences, but I believe this one is missing some extra dungeons that were added to previous releases. That's the only thing holding back from saying this is the complete definitive edition, but it's a faithful remaster of the classic so I'd say this is a great place to start if you're interested in the series.

I played the Reflourished mod, which removes all microtransactions and rebalances plants. The game is almost unplayable to me without it since a lot of classic plants are locked behind paywalls, and the game balance is all over the place. Most of the plants you pay for are so good they can dominate any level you use them in, and the game is already a bit too easy even if you don't use them.

Reflourished removes all micro transactions, adds new levels and worlds, removes plant levels, and rebalances plants so they're not completely broken. Some of the best plants got nerfed, which is kind of a bummer but it did give the game some needed difficulty. The new additions are all high-quality , and everything fits in perfectly with the base game. It's basically a necessity at this point with how monetized the unmodded game has become.

Not giving a rating because I don't think the game is worth your time unless you mod it.

This is a lot of fun if you have 1-2 friends and kind of a slog without. Me and my brother played the first world together and I ended up finishing it solo, so I got both experiences.

The level design at the start feels tight, it's rewarding to search every nook and cranny for secrets and treasure. Each world has a theme, none of them too creative but it gets the job done. The big appeal is plowing through hordes of enemies and finding power-ups that allow you to do so more efficiently.

One major gripe is that it's actually really hard to restore health and there's no reason it should be that way. You can either buy a meager amount with your gold or replay one of the levels (the first one has a decent amount of health pickups) over and over, grinding your progression to a stop. It's such a pain I would just stay around 50% health and never grinded for more until the final boss.

The levels towards the end got too big for their own good, they often required finding hidden switches to progress that offered little to no indication of what they were actually doing. There's no map so navigating some of the more sprawling levels becomes an exercise in tedium as you backtrack to figure out which breakable wall you missed 10 minutes ago.

The bosses were the weakest part, they're all big stationary monsters that spam projectiles and none of them had any kind of strategy besides throwing everything you have at them to kill them before they deplete too much precious health.

Overall I have my gripes but it's still a great co-op game, and it's easy to overlook it's flaws if you have a friend or two to play with. The sound design is really iconic, I hadn't played this since I was a kid and I instantly recognized almost every sound effect. If you're looking for something quick to pick up and play with friends this a great pick.

Nightmare - I'm not a big fan of survival type games, but it was fun for a few playthroughs. The rewards you get after reaching certain score thresholds really encourage you to do just one more run and see how far you can get this time.

Bedroom - this was my favorite part of the dlc, but I'm also just a sucker for escape room puzzles. Having to restore the room to it's original state before your kidnapper returns is a neat twist.

Ethan Must Die - basically an ultra-difficult rougelike version of the main game. I gave it a go, but I just don't like how brutal it is on top of being luckbased.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with this pack. That said, if either of the two survival type games interest you, it's worth picking up on sale.

21 - I enjoyed this one because of the extra layers of strategy the custom deck offers, and the initial playthrough with Lucas taunting you is just edgy enough to be enjoyable. I tried the harder difficulties, but they felt like they dragged on too long for my tastes.

Daughters - this is the big lore dump of the dlc, light on gameplay but gives some backstory of the Bakers. I was under the impression that Eveline slowly worked her way in the pysche of the family, so it was a little odd to me that here it shows they basically fall under her control immediately. I think it would've been more effective if it showed a gradual descent into madness.

Jack's 55th Party - I gave this a shot but it's not really my type of minigame. I did appreciate how goofy the whole thing is though (molded in party hats??).

Overall, a bit of a mixed bag, but I bought it at 50% and can't complain at that price. Worth it if you wanted more lore, or if the other two minigames look enticing.

I thought I'd go through and play all the DLC for the recent Resident Evil titles, since I skipped them when I first played the games, but now I see I didn't miss much. The premise is to show "what-if" scenarios of characters who died in the base game, so it's non-canon, and the settings are recycled areas from the main game. I found the difficulty way too high - it throws tons of enemies at you the whole time and severely limits your resources, to the point where it feels like if you make one mistake you may as well start over. There's no new lore to discover, no new settings, and it's just not fun to play through. Anyone looking for more RE2R can safely skip this.