borrowed a copy of the original game to play with FPS boost on my Series X since the remaster seems to be a mixed bag (will probs just go with that in my next replay in a few years or w/e).

for the first four episodes i was enjoying the game at large the most i have since the very first time i played through. making some choices that i didn't usually make (or a few that i never had) freshened things up a lot and it was interesting to see things for the first time even in my fourth run.

the elephant in the room is of course episode 5 but i've softened on that a bit? at this point i've moved past my severe distaste for the ending and things leading up to it (the fact that they so clearly focused on one of the endings is still wack) but am left with an episode that feels completely on rails with an even lower amount of interaction or input than the rest. every LiS game has a blatant low point episode at this point but it really does a lot of damage in this one (and 2) in particular because they were so consistent otherwise.

will probably skip Before the Storm (and opt to listen to the soundtrack by itself instead) and move directly onto 2 for my ongoing series replay. if i feel up to play True Colors this soon after my first run i might do an opposite choices replay.