thehappypianoman
2020
A cute puzzle game with nice art and funny moments
2018
Fantastic game, very satisfying Katamari-like (and honestly more fun than Katamari) with surprisingly good writing and plot for the type of game that it is. Really great music as well.
2016
Beautiful game, beautiful music. First Austin Wintory game and I can see why everyone loves his music. Pacing was a bit slow for my tastes, the most exhilarating part was the first time you swim in a rapid stream with the red fish, actually made me tear up.
pleasantly surprised by this game --- despite it not being an RPG and not in the style of TTYD (which is one of my favorite games of all time), the art, writing, and music (!!!) were so good that the game was really fun to play through anyway.
2012
really fun gameplay but one of the great examples of how music really really elevates a game
2017
Joseph Anderson's review of this game actually changed my mind on this game LOL honestly feeling pretty lukewarm toward it. A lot of the star collecting did feel very ... empty.
Enough has been said about the gameplay, but BotW has one of the best soundtracks ever, and likely my favorite Zelda OST (competing with Link's Awakening).
Wrote this: http://jasonyu.me/breaking-the-loop-botw/
Wrote this: http://jasonyu.me/breaking-the-loop-botw/
2018
this game is like ... perfect? like I have no complaints with any part of it. I still need to beat the game at 32 heat, or at least do 16 heat with all weapons (still missing 2 at time of writing) but yeah, hugely addicting game, great art, fitting music, tight gameplay and lots of variety/cool builds.
2015
Well, I wrote this: http://jasonyu.me/undertale-part-1/
There is no other game like this currently out there --- one of the few games where you feel like you are actually making deductions and solving mysteries in a video game (vs being guided through those deductions, which can still be good like Phoenix Wright).
2020
Super solid and fun RPG with surprisingly intuitive and satisfying timing mechanics (a la Paper Mario). A big part of the appeal is the pretty art and the amazing soundtrack. 100%'d this one (but honestly, this was my main complaint! I wanted to get "more" for beating all the optional bosses).
2019
This review contains spoilers
One of the best games I have ever played. Enough has been said about all the games this does well, but I think the biggest thing for me was just how much the game ... respects your intelligence as a player. I constantly felt like I was doing insanely out of the box crazy stuff only to realize that's what's actually needed to solve the puzzle and advance. The story comes together beautifully and the ending sequence has got to be one of the best in any game, ever. Would literally recommend to anyone (except people who get motion sick from FPS games!)
2019
GOTY 2019 (?!)
One of the best portrayals of the complexities of Asian Parent-Child relationships I have ever seen in any media, let alone games. Horror, emotional, beautiful, had me thinking about it for weeks afterwards. One of the best games I have ever played.
One of the best portrayals of the complexities of Asian Parent-Child relationships I have ever seen in any media, let alone games. Horror, emotional, beautiful, had me thinking about it for weeks afterwards. One of the best games I have ever played.
2018
wonderful, simple narrative game. I think I wished there was a tiny bit more of "gameplay reflects emotional state" but what was there was good --- puzzle pieces to show ease of conversation, unpacking and packing of furniture to make the "moving out" sequence more emotionally painful ... a very easy game to recommend, short and sweet.
2019
The island is surprisingly large and full of stuff to do. And such a sweet ending---not completely unsurprising but it hit so well. Just a perfect little game