The fact that this is even remember positively, let alone considered a "timeless masterpiece", endlessly eludes me to this day. Even as a child, I could tell just how shit Petscop was. I wish I could type paragraphs upon paragraphs about how terrible it is, but there is genuinely so little depth that I can barely type a few sentences.

To give you the full picture; in Petscop, there is only one level. And said level has maybe 4 or 5 one minute dead-brained puzzles. That's it. No other levels. No extras menu. No easter eggs. That is ALL of content in this game. Anything else is either unfinished menu options or scrapped pets (which are all left in the game and do nothing).

The only reason I can conjure up that this unfinished, buggy mess of a game is so beloved is either 1. it's one big ironic joke that I'm out of the loop of, 2. I somehow received an unfinished build of the game, but judging by a YouTube video I skimmed through, I don't think that's the case, or 3. some people for some reason REALLY love the visuals, music, and general aesthetic of the game. The ladder is the only case in which I can understand liking this game, but even then, why not give your attention to other actually good, well crafted games instead of this shovelware scam game?

I do not recommend this game under any circumstance. Life is short, go obsess over something else.

i can't stop playing. every waking moment, i'm in this game. even on mondays, i'll never stop. after around 2 weeks, i stopped using the bathroom, and started using the litter box. i stopped eating anything besides lasagna, and i only drank milk. my wife left, and she took most of my kids, besides one, who i had with another woman. i named him jon. he cares for me after my wife left by cooking me tasty lasagna every day, cleaning my litter box and my room of all the plates and cups, and he even once bought me a computer case that has garfield on it! one time, my 662lb weight broke my special gaming chair with garfield stickers on it and i cried for a long time, until finally jon came in with a new chair. he even put the garfield stickers on for me! another time, after finishing a tasty plate of lasagna, my chest started to hurt. i tried to reach to grab my chest to make it feel better, but all the crust from the dried up lasagna made it so i couldn't move my hand. i then passed out. when i woke up, i wasn't at my gaming computer anymore. instead, i was in a place with white walls. i was on a bed, but my fat rolled out on the ground around me, which was really cold. there was a tv in front of my playing the garfield show. all the lasagna crust i had been saving up for the last 5 years was gone as well! a man walked into my room with white clothing on and said that i had had a heart attack while on my computer and that i was lucky to be alive. when i asked him where garfield kart was, he told me that i couldn't play for a bit and that i needed time to get better. after hearing this, i let out a mighty scream and scrambled to get on my feet, but i landed on the floor. the doctor called for backup to help pick me up, but it was too late. my immense weight caused the floor to break under me, which made me fall. each time i hit another floor, it broke, as i landed on multiple other people, until i finally made it to the bottom. using two stretchers to lift up my fat, i got out of that place. i didn't know where i was, but i then spotted my house a few blocks away. it took an hour, but i finally got home. jon asked what i was doing home, and i screamed at him "GARFIELD KART!!!!". he then lifted me up the stairs and put me back in my seat, and i got back to playing. i heard jon crying downstairs, presuming he was overcome with joy after i came home from that evil place.

i give this game a 10/10! great for all fans of garfield alike!

As someone who has spent hours dabbling into RPG Maker, I always knew that as a game making tool, it had incredible potential. It was by no means the most complex program, but it had all the tools for a gem to be crafted. However, despite the years of its existence, it felt like it never crafted anything that fully clicked. OFF has a fantastic story and great visuals, but puts little attention towards combat. Omori's few good aspects are stuck under heaps and heaps of flaws and bad design. All the various horror games such as Ao Oni or The Crooked Man are generally enjoyable horror experiences but completely ditch the RPG formula.

As an avid turn based RPG fan, Lisa is easily the best I've ever played. For a while, I've struggled to find a JRPG that mixes all the genre's strengths into one package. One with great gameplay would have mediocre story, and vice versa. Story wouldn't tie into the gameplay in satisfying and impactful ways. Combat was diluted with endless, useless systems of high yet shallow complexity. My initial love for these games would always fall off as these cracks in their systems bore deeper. However, Lisa has reaffirmed my love for the potential of the genre by being a shining example of nearly every good aspect about turn based RPGs.

The gameplay was the part I was easily most worried about. There is a depressingly small number of games which I would say respect turned based combat, understand what makes it work, and executes it well. RPG Makers games were usually guilty of not. However, not only does Lisa nail it, but it also handles it in a unique way. In most RPGs, battles are almost entirely confined to the fight itself. You're usually given a moment to prepare, and rarely what happens outside of battles will affect you in them. Lisa instead takes the survival and resource management aspects of turn based combat and spreads it throughout the whole game. The whole "I can't use these items now I may need them later" feeling actually matters here as some items you get cannot be regained. Damage you take cannot always be healed, and you gotta charge forward with low health. And even if you find one, most heal spots have potential risks, including permanent debuffs, losing party members, and getting into fights. You can get randomly ambushed just walking around. Dialogue choices can have extremely dire consequences. Everything in this game sets you back, but you have to keep marching. However, the gameplay isn't carried by this either. Combat is still really fun. Don't expect anything amazing, enemies are usually pretty one note and can be tackled with the same strategy. The best thing battles bring to the table though is the potential loss of party members. Specific enemies can instantly kill your teammates permanently. Forever. If you don't save scum, you'll have to reorganize your team and start your strategy from scratch.

However, that brings me into my first, and probably only issue; Lisa is too forgiving. Even on Pain mode, It's simply too easy to get past all the management and consequences. Money and experience can be infinitely farmed, items can be infinitely bought, and saves can be infinitely loaded. I only ignored these aspects out of respect for the spirit of the game, but I cannot overlook them. I can understand these being in the normal mode, but I really think pain mode should've taken the extra step forward, especially since it is possible to beat the game with these restrictions. I placed all of these on myself and got by. It made my experience better, but I could never get the nagging feeling in my head to reload and save resources or characters to go away, which took away from the experience as a whole. Not nearly to a degree of ruining the game, but I could never consider it the best of the best because of it.

The story is what most people find memorable about the game, and for good reason. I won't go into detail, but I do wanna mention one major thing; how it ties into gameplay. I've always thought that JRPGs are ripe to implement story and combat more seamlessly than other genres. The turn based nature allowing for story beats to happen step by step, as well as the heavy use of text to showcase battles allowing for dialogue and wording, levels and skills allowing for character growth to be easily and immediately reflected into combat, character visuals and names being able to change and reflect revelations, etc. The simplified visual nature of turn based combat allows for so much to be expressed that wouldn't be possible in other games is one of JRPG's biggest strengths, and Lisa has the shining example of this. I won't say specifically, but it's the fight on the first island after making the ship. This fight plays like a normal battle, but every aspect of it tells you about yourself and who you're fighting. I rarely cry, or even get even close to it in games, but this fight got me the closest to it in a long time.

Another big strength of the story is the focus. A lot of games really put importance on the big picture and what's happening inside of it, however Lisa doesn't care about that. The game is obviously post apocalyptic, but what happened before is almost entirely unknown. Any time you view life before, or have it mentioned, it's purely to drive the characters forward. Things like the mutants have little but vague hints as to why they even exist, and the game is all the better for it. For both serious and comedic purposes, the game focuses solely on the characters and their actions, and its the only thing that drives the game forward. The history of the world matters to you as much as it does to the characters themselves, so you rarely hear about it. I really like this approach, and I like how it thematically ties into Brad too.

To move on, Lisa has a very unique handle on its world. It's hard to describe how Lisa combines it's comedic and depression, serious sides. It's not like a coin, as that would imply two completely separated halves. They're moreso blended together, with both happening simultaneously. There will be moments where you'll go through a depressing cutscene where a long time party member gets murdered, and then a minute later you'll walk into a house where Poopsock Gonzalez will tell you the tragic tale of how he became known as Poopsock Gonzalez, before joining your party. This dichotomy wouldn't work if it weren't for two reasons; the first is how the comedic and depressing elements tie into the world. In most games, comedy is meant to relieve the depressing parts, to take you out of the sad and bring you out of the world with something disconnected to be comedic. However in Lisa, every joke is grounded within the boundry of the world itself and how it works. Humor and gags are so common and relentless in Lisa that they retroactively become part of the world itself, likewise with the depressing elements. You eventually just accept both as part of the world itself, and so you're never taken out of the moment by random bits. A shining example of this is the scene where you have to ride the body after the cutscene that nearly got me that I mentioned earlier. You're so depressed by this point that this very small, slight gag honestly does nothing but make you feel worse, and it's genius. The second main reason is because the game is actually really funny and really depressing. It is probably the funniest game I have ever played, and one of the most relentlessly sad games too.

Finally, there's one more element I want to bring up, the general scuffed quality of Lisa. In most games, a game being scuffed or not well made in parts would bother me. However, Lisa is able to get by this by having the scuffed feel be a perfect fit for the feel Lisa is going for. It's hard for me to fully articulate, but the general idea is that I think having the game have higher quality visuals, music, mechanics, etc would take away a crucial feel towards the game.

In the end, I am left saddened that Lisa is an exception in its genre. How is stagnation even possible to happen when that is the case? We need more games like Lisa, ones that take a look at the genre they come from and innovate on what can be accomplished while staying true to what made said genre so established in the first place. Lisa doesn't feel like a loveletter to JRPGs, nor does it feel like it exists to be a solution to it's issues; rather, it feels like being a JRPG was just the natural fit to an already incredible idea for a game. And one day, it will click.

When considering how to feel about games, I always feel like it is important to take into consideration the context, conditions, and other variables that revolve around the game rather than the game itself for my review. For example, the time the game was made, the budget or economy of the region, time spent on the game, etc. For most games, especially modern ones, this consideration almost never has any impact.

Five Nights at Fuckboys: Complete Collection is a game that shouldn't be respected. It's a crude, tasteless parody of the FNaF series turned into a turn based RPG format with a story that rivals Kingdom Hearts in convolution, and only a few characters that have any depth outside of swearing and sex jokes. And yet, I love this game. With a combination of scarily well balanced RPG combat, fantastic music choices with an entire alternate OST if you're sick of the main one, a surprisingly good story, and some of the best turn based battles I have ever played through.

Before I begin, I feel that it's important that I talk about my history with the series beforehand. I discovered FNaFb one day while I was scrolling through GameJolt as a child. I played all three games, however I always played on Normal, never did any of the bonus bosses, and in FNaFb3 I never made it past Act 2. I have played the originals countless times. Something about these games were just strangely alluring to me. In the years after, I would randomly get desires to replay these games.

One time, I decided to look deeper into FNaFb, and discovered an entire community of FNaFb fans who made fan games. This lead me down another rabbit hole of strange, usually shitty FNaFb inspired games like FuckCraft, FNaFb: IAT, and Persono. During my dives into the depths, I learned of a new FNaFb game; the Complete Collection. A full remake of the first 3 games inside of the new RPG Maker engine, MV. Needless to say I was excited, and so waited patiently.

After months of waiting, it finally came out in March of 2021. I then played it..... for an hour or so. For some reason I just wasn't grabbed, and so I moved on. It wasn't until a year later where I picked up the game again in January of 2022. I then played for a few more hours before dropping at FNaFb3 Act 1. It wasn't until late May of 2022, where I discovered JoiPlay, and the fact that I could play these games at school. Suddenly a fire was reignited and I blasted through the rest of FNaFb 3, including beating Act 3 for the first time.

To say I was satisfied with this collection is an understatement. As stupid as this sounds, I think in relativity, this game is amazing. You might not believe me, however I personally think this game perfects RPG Maker's combat system with minimal additions.

Before that though, I should go over the game. FNaFb CC is split into 5 parts; FNaFb1, 2, 3, as well as the "Afterstory" and "Finale". There's a nifty play order button right on the title screen that tells you exactly the order you should play it (though I will say, I wish it included the Vile scenario so people wouldn't play it right after FNaFb 1 without the context of 2). Each game is really well recreated and preserved in the collection. However, there are a decent amount of notable changes to improve balancing and other parts of the game.

While playing these games, I always chose the hardest difficulty (outside of Night XXX because, you know), and I highly suggest it. XX/Proud feels like the true dev intended way to play the game, and all the fights are balanced accordingly with it. XX brings a special feature with it though; dietary guilt. A major exploit in the original FNaFb was the ability to just spam food and other items onto your party members, effectively making them invincible and giving the ability to beat almost any fight, even ones intended to be unbeatable. CC removes this by adding a new system. Every edible item has one of two aspects; dietary or alcoholism. They are effectively the same, the only difference being the former being food and the ladder being drinks. This adds a lot to combat. Not only can you no longer spam max HP pizzas, but you also have to carefully consider when to use your food and which one to use. If you max out your DP or AP, then you'll be unable to consume food until your points reach a certain point. Despite its overall simplicity, I think it adds so much to combat. You really have to consider your choices in battle. Do I heal here and max out this character’s DP? Or do I heal with a skill, removing the DP but removing SP and adding another gauge to watch for? The feature is generally unintrusive, but if you completely ignore it you’ll regret it, like a ticking timebomb ready to go off if you fuck up.

The first game I'll start with is FNaFb 1. It's very simple and short, starting you as the titular Freddy Fuckboy. Your goal? Have a night of debauchery and shit on all the cameras. Simple, but endearing. The humor in the first game is good. It sets up not only the humor for the series going on, but also the beginning of many recurring jokes in the series. The small puzzles to recruit party members is also pretty fun, though incredibly easy once you know what you're doing. A neat feature about this game is that you can recruit the party members in any order, or you can just not recruit some. You’re given the freedom to tackle the game how you want, though there’s no real reason to not recruit them.

The cameras are the first major change in CC. Rather than every camera being the exact same, each one has a special gimmick to them. So for example, one might be incredibly strong but can only hit every other turn, one might be incredibly fast and even outpace Foxy, or a camera that causes your team to constantly lose HP. There's lots of variety and it adds a lot to what used to be overall pretty boring and unnotable battles in the original. Another major change is the Puppet. Rather than being a constant timer, the Puppet appears and gives you only 5 minutes to prepare. You better run around and grind like crazy, or you'll get your ass kicked (it's not nearly as bad as the OG trust me). Once you beat the Puppet, a second Puppet spawns, however it has no time limit. It is simply a bonus boss you can fight at any time. I really love these changes. In the entire FNaFb series and especially fan games, they really loved bringing back this stupid fucking Puppet for no reason. Its gimmick was super annoying and a chore to do. It added so much wasted time to every playthrough, as every 3 minutes you'd have to backtrack or be killed by an insanely hard superboss. Luckily by Act 2, the puppet was removed from existence, but his scars on the community will always remain.

The only other truly notable change is the bonus dungeon. For context, every FNaFb game received a "Final Mix" update to the game, adding wealths of content and overhauling certain aspects. In FNaFb 1, the big addition was this dungeon. It has a unique gimmick where your health is constantly drained, however there are restore points around the map that fully fill up your HP. CC changes this, instead adding a new oxygen meter that slowly goes down. If it hits zero, you die. It's relatively easy to get through, especially with all the oxygen vials, but it's still pretty stressful. In CC, there is also a bonus boss at the end. You have to fight Plushtrap. Apparently, this bonus boss was added as a teaser for FNaFb ASL, a now canceled FNaFb VR game (I wonder why it was canceled). The boss is overall pretty easy and not notable, outside of its connection to ASL. FNaFb1 ends with a fight against Golden Freddy, who is pissed that you didn't invite him to your night of debauchery (remember this, it's important). Freddy and Co beat the shit out of him and the game ends. (I forgot to mention, if you complete all the content there is a little bonus boss with Puppetmaster BB, where he reveals himself to be the villain. His role as antagonist isn’t important yet though).

Overall, FNaFb1 CC is a fantastic remake of the original. Removing all that made it annoying and instead adding genuinely fun and balanced features, FNaFb 1 CC acts as an easy replacement of the original, and should be played first if you're interested. FNaFb1 also has two side modes; its Q and W scenario. The Q scenario just lets you play as BB and is non canon, however the W scenario is much more interesting. I will go over it later.

Next is FNaFB2. It's similar to its predecessor in many ways; Freddy (now Toy) decided to go on a night of debauchery and invites all the animatronics in the pizzeria to join (including Golden Freddy this time!). Most everything I said about FNaFb 1 is true with this one, so instead I will focus on the unique things that make this game stand out.

First is the plot. This is where the series goes from Freddy says fuck to Freddy says fuck to Balloon Boy who is also God now for some reason. It's a stupid plot but it's enjoyable, but it hasn't truly picked up at this time yet.

The next is the combat. It's mostly the same, except for one key difference; the Withereds. In the original FNaFb2, you were dumped all 8 animatronics at the same time. Every turn in battle, you had to give commands to and account for all 8 animatronics, and as you could easily guess it was a nightmare, especially for the balancing. CC fixes this perfectly and adds a decent amount of extra depth to this game; allowing you to only use 4 animatronics, but being able to switch any of them out freely (outside of Toy Freddy of course). And my favorite part; when you switch, they get to go on that turn. You don't waste the turn. The amount of extra strategy this adds to bosses is great and makes some encounters, especially one in particular, really fun. Their HP, SP, and TP also stay the same when you switch, which allows for fun strategies like something I call a "Toy Chica Bomb", where you max out Toy Chica's TP as soon as possible before switching her out for someone else, and then when you're in a tricky situation, adding her back and having her use her move where she revives the entire party or fully buffs all of them. Shit like this is just incredibly satisfying to be able to be given the tools as a player to do, while also making boss fights more strategic. And speaking of bosses...

The boss fights in FNaFb2 CC are easily the best in the entire collection. All of them are incredibly well balanced, and one of them is genuinely one of my favorites of all time in any game. Some examples of great fights are Shadow Bonnie, who hides his health bar and makes the fight unpredictable and intense, Toy Freddy where you must face yourself and throws off your current strategy by taking away your permanent party member and making you rethink, and Giygas BB, with his incredibly simple but genius gimmick of the empty heads, which give BB an extra move based off one of the 4 original FNaFb 1 party members.

However, out of all of these, one stands above the rest, and of course that belongs to the Refurbs. After beating every single boss on Proud mode, the animatronics from FNaFb 1 suddenly appear during the credits for one final showdown. The whole fight is incredible. I have played many games where you fight other people who are apparently on your level, however they use none of the cheap tricks you can. The Refurbs change that, giving them access to both healing and reviving. This sounds terrible, but the fight is meticulously balanced so that it becomes fair, if challenging. You have to constantly attack the animatronics, while also making sure your party stays alive too. It's a long back and forth full of death, dietary guilt, and constant party member swapping, but after a long battle you can exhaust their resources and take the victory. Beating this boss for the first time after fighting them multiple times for 40 minutes each was one of the most satisfying moments in any turn based game I've played. A genuinely genius boss battle that I will view as a golden example as how to do a challenging superboss correctly in turn based games.

However, that is not all for FNaFb2. Starting with it, there was a very interesting way of storytelling added to the games; side modes. The side mode included in this game was the Afterstory, also known as the Save Import Scenario. In the original FNaFb2, if you placed a completed Night XXX save file from FNaFb1 into 2's save folder and loaded it in game, you'd unlock a special mode detailing the events after Night XXX. This is where the story goes off the rails. After Freddy and Co get completely yiffed by Golden Freddy, Freddy is left all alone with his teammates dead. However out of nowhere, Balloon Boy comes in with his time machine and picks up Freddy, taking him to the glorious 80's, aka the FNaFb 2 location. After some shenanigans with the lord Michael Jackson, 90's BB kills 80's BB, fucking up the timeline. BB then warps back to the future with the Puppet to fuck up FNaFb1 and possess the toys. Freddy escapes and explores the 80's, finding himself in a land of glorious vaporwave. He eventually encounters Golden Freddy, and take him 1-1. However, his allies suddenly appear from the sky and fight alongside him, and they eventually take Golden Freddy down in an epic rematch. Afterward, the gang catch up with BB in order to get back home, however after a dispute they are sent in between timelines. Eventually, they escape, but BB travels to the credits, trapping the animatronics in the cutscene and allowing for BB's escape. After the credits though, they find the FNaFb2 cast, and Freddy decided to take them on as an unwinnable superboss just to fuck with them. However, they both join forces after deciding to team up against BB after Freddy and Co obliterate them. They wander into his new golden palace, and face him, with each animatronic group facing him individually. Finally, the Freddys team up, leveling up every single turn, before delivering the final blow, killing BB and banishing him between timelines.

In my opinion, the Afterstory is peak FNaFb. It is easily the funniest for me, with great lines from every character. They all have great timing and execution, and the whole trapped in the credits sequence is amazing. The boss fights are all really solid too, especially the final boss where you fight with each character group individually. Seeing XXX Freddy level up to 20 too was also just an amazing moment. While I love what comes after, I think Afterstory just hits all the high points of the series for me.

And finally, we have FNaFb3. This is easily the biggest of the three, while also easily being the most unique. And in terms of the CC, it's the game that has been touched up the most. Most of the changes for CC up to this point have been, in my opinion, just better than the original all around, however with FNaFb3, there are enough changes and additions to the point where I can easily understand a preference between one or the other. This is going to be a long one, so let's get into it.

Unlike with FNaFb2, I cannot fully gloss over similar aspects with FNaFb1, as so much has changed. So, I'll start from the beginning. This game has three acts; Act 1, Act 2, And Act 3 (also known as "Finale" in CC). These acts all shift up the gameplay of FNaFb3 considerably. Obviously, I will start with Act 1.

In the first genre defining change that will shake the foundation of gaming as a whole, you play as “not Freddy”, aka Springtrap. Springtrap is very unique as a party member, as he has two turns. And likewise, due to this, he never gains any party members. For the entirety of Act 1, you are completely alone. I personally love this feature. It completely recontextualizes how you do fights, and the limited two turns you're given makes the way you strategize and tackle battles entirely different. Springtrap was easily my most favorite character to play as, as he's given just enough tool variety to be really fun while not being too boring or too easy. I have no clue how they did it but they struck the balance perfectly.

The gameplay has received some notable changes. You go after the Phantoms in a linear format this time, with each having a special mechanic similar to the Cameras of past games. There’s also the aforementioned double turns, which gives combat a completely new feel. However outside of that, the gameplay is pretty similar to what I described for previous games.

The true first difference comes from enemies. In random encounters, the devs decided to add new enemies. I always found these new additions really strange and out of place, as they break away from the common theme of pizzeria items and instead go for random shit like kids in ghost costumes and… Freddy Freaker? I’m going to be honest, I do not understand why they added these at all. It’s overall pretty minor but it feels like the devs were just fucking around, which is strange in a game that’s surprisingly airtight and faithful to the originals.

The next major change comes in the form of bosses. I already mentioned the phantoms beforehand, but there’s also an entire new group of optional bosses. Most of these bosses are alright but generally unremarkable. However, there is one pretty great one; Scraptrap. If you beat all of the FFPS, begin the vent act and get to the office, you’ll discover him. Scraptrap is a pretty difficult fight, made all the more stressful by the fact that there is no save point. You can retry the fight after death, but if you quit the game you have to go through Ennard all over again. Scraptrap is pretty much just Springtrap, copying down his exact moves and using his same strategies. You have to be very liberal with your buffs and debuffs, as he will punish you for using both. My suggested strategy is to attempt to get him asleep, and then to apply buffs and debuffs, use that charge move and attack for massive damage. You’ll have to play defensively to cover the lowered defense but it’s worth it. Also always know that you can guard on your second attack to pretty much guard every turn, but I found that overkill.

Next is the story. This is when it starts to get good. At the end, you learn that Springtrap has been helping to revive Balloon Boy this whole time, and it ends like that. It’s a sudden ending, but it’s far from the end.

You start Act 2 with a cutscene. Golden Freddy is driving through the rain. Chipper calls and asks him to take down Springtrap and Phantom Balloon Boy. This part is unironically really fucking cool. A banger begins playing as you walk through the building to take down an old friend. As you walk, you see cutscenes of your past, revealing that Golden Freddy and Springtrap used to be friends. However, one day Springtrap decided to have a night of debauchery, in which he refused Golden Freddy from going. This sparked Golden Freddy’s hate of being uninvited to nights of debauchery.

The gameplay here is pretty unique too. Golden Freddy is another solo fighter, however he has a very unique ability; summoning. With enough TP, he can summon one of many party streamers to help him fight. Each party streamer has different moves which can be useful in different situations. Sadly however, the act isn’t long enough, nor are the fights interesting enough to let this moveset shine. You basically fight the same set of cameras from the first 2 games but with some differences.

At the end, you take on Springtrap and Phantom Balloon Boy. It’s a long and tough battle. Balloon Boy straight up leaves half way through, so don’t waste your time on him. This fight is sorta neat as there’s a move limit. After enough turns, the building will collapse and you will die, so make sure to kill Springtrap as fast as possible. In the end, the building burns to the ground and in the end you both seemingly go down in the fire together… or do they?

That’s it for FNaFb3. You may be thinking “That’s it?”, but trust me, we still have some ways to go. Before that though, there is something I must cover. Remember beforehand where I mentioned the W scenario in FNaFb1? Well, this scenario is also known as the Vile scenario.

Back at the pizzeria, we find a new character; Vile (who might be familiar to Megaman X fans). He has one goal; to find his father and get revenge. The mode itself in gameplay is pretty uninteresting; you’re basically blasting through FNaFb1 with a super overpowered character. The real meat of this mode comes from the lore reveals.

Scattered around the pizzeria are books, which tell a story. A story of a sought out man, who after being forced to care for a child from a woman who he hated, he decided to do the unthinkable. The child is sent to the past and lives a life on his own. However, after losing his wife to, and I quote, “a kratt racing dinosaur in a game of poker”, his life fell apart. After this, he began to hunt down his father for abandoning him when he needed him most. He was able to build his own time travel machine, finding himself in a dystopia wasteland where humans were no more. To this day, he is still hunting for his father. If it wasn’t obvious, this story is about Vile. His father? We’ll just have to see…

But anyways, the scenario ends with Vile taking down different phantoms created from his memories. He realizes that his father was not here, and decided to check out a different era. While this scenario is pretty absurd and obviously based on a multitude of inside jokes that I could never understand, it’s still pretty interesting. The story is unironically intriguing and I was curious what would happen next. And speaking of that…

Finally, after so much time, we reach the end. The Finale, or Act 3. This act is incredibly long, and brings everything to a close. It has both the highest highs and the lowest lows. The act also has very unique gameplay compared to the rest of the series. However, there is a bit of a prelude before this act kicks into full gear, so I'll start with that.

The act takes place just after the Afterstory. Freddy is alone in the Delorean, and decides that he wants to take the ultimate vacation, and so begins to locate Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. After obtaining them all, they proceed to have the ultimate vacation, however, on their last stop, Freddy comes to a terrible sight; Vapor Land has lost all of its wave. Freddy grieves the loss of his washed out glory land. Realizing that the Delorean ran out of gas, Freddy and Co (minus Bonnie who fell off) travel to the ruins of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

Freddy uses a large button on the wall he installed to bring back all his money, however it ends up getting scattered everywhere. While picking it up, Vile suddenly appears at the pizzeria. Believing Freddy to be his father, there’s a short chase sequence before they fight.

This fight is pretty neat, however there’s something beforehand I’d like to point out; the music. This is the first time the games have used actual “real” music rather than video game music, and God did they make an incredible choice. I was already a fan of The Fall of Troy as I had listened to them for the first time a few months prior after a recommendation, so hearing one of their songs here was surprising and awesome. Maybe it’s just because of its use in a fight, but I think the song is genuinely one of, if not my favorite song of all time. It hits most of my tastes in a perfect way. I highly recommend you go listen to it; “Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles'’ by The Fall of Troy, you wont regret it (And also listen to the rest of the Doppelganger album, it has some gems).

Anyways, the rest of the fight is standard, at least in terms of the boss. The interesting part once again comes from the lore. Midway through the fight, Freddy has an epiphany and leaves. After a few turns, he comes back with who would’ve guessed, Toy Freddy. It’s revealed that he was the father, and that Vile was his and Splash Woman’s bastard child. Vile is obviously pissed by this, but Toy Freddy shows pretty much no remorse. After the fight, Vile dies. Freddy and Co face Balloon Boy in the office, however he is invincible. So, Freddy and Co go on a quest through dungeons inside the Past and Future respectively in order to turn on the generators, enter the office, and defeat Balloon Boy. Before we get into that though, I want to go over some wide sweep changes and additions.

The first notable change in gameplay is the party. You’re finally back to 4 party members! And not only that, but party member switching is back! You’re limited to just 4 at the start, however as you explore the dungeons (which we’ll get to later), you’ll discover more and more new party members from various points along the series. All these characters hold their original movesets, and can be used in combat in any combination (Freddy always has to be there though).

The second change comes within the map itself. FNaFb has always been very unique in where you play; you’re isolated to a single, pretty small building. There’s no real outside to explore and despite the fact that you can pretty much go anywhere, the tiny size of the maps means you’re always gonna be following the intended path. Act 3 takes the series in an entirely new direction by turning it into a full on dungeon crawler, with many floors, puzzles and characters to find. Exploring is actually pretty fun, and I thought all the puzzles were well made. There’s a total of two dungeons, one set in the Past and one in the Future, which you switch between to explore further in each. I love this system as I am an avid fan of dungeon crawlers, however, there is one major issue I have, which I will get to soon.

If there’s one thing that didn’t change too much, it’s the combat. It’s pretty much everything you’d expect up to this point, outside of the party member changes stated earlier. The biggest change is the lack of a level system. You still need to fight to get tokens, however every character starts at their highest level. This might be my biggest problem with Act 3. The dungeons are fun to explore, but combat feels genuinely pointless. Tokens are still useful, but it just feels pointless at that point. I would’ve greatly preferred if you had to level everyone up again, it would be fun. And sadly, despite loving the dungeons, they’re not good enough to carry the gameplay single handedly. I found myself bored around half way through. It sucks too since adding levels is such an easy fix, but whatever.

Speaking of combat though, the bosses are alright this time around. Most of the dungeon bosses are nothing notable. The real interest comes from the trinkets. Around the dungeon, you can pick up trinkets which can be brought to Toy Freddy. Each trinket will bring you to a different time period to fight a superboss. These fights are neat little things and have some nice jokes, but the fights themselves are kinda meh. I remember just trying to get through them because most of them are pretty slow.

There’s also one last big notable change. At the end of the Future dungeon, there’s a completely new boss; Dreadbear. The fight is surprisingly tough, but eventually you take him down and get him as a party member.

After beating the two dungeons, you’re at the end. This is it for not only the Act, not only for the game, but the entire franchise. Pick the best party members you’ve got and head into the office and face Balloon Boy. Balloon Boy reveals his true intention; to become God. All he has to do is breach time itself.

I’m gonna be honest, the fights that come next and the scene beforehand I described were a lot more impactful and emotional for me than I expected. I’ve never been particularly close with this series, however it’s been with me for years. I’ve been playing these games for 7 years now, nearly as long as the main FNaF series. I’ve replayed them countless times, however I was never able to truly finish it. So after all this time, seeing it all come to a close is just incredible. Freddy saying some stupid sterotypical JRPG shit about saving the universe and stopping BB genuinely threw me back. Starting the fight and hearing that music, paired with the original FNaFb 1 team I decided to start with for dramatic effect, hyped me up so much. However, the greatest part came after I scanned Hybrid B.B, where it simply read “No regrets. No turnbacks. Defeat BB”. The sense of finality from this fight, not just in the game, but for me and my connection to this series was absolutely insane. I don’t think there’s another game series currently that can top the rush I felt during this finale. The fact that a stupid game where Freddy says fuck can have this much impact on me is something that has to be commended highly.

Anyways, after Hybrid BB, you fight Balloon Boy’s final form. This fight is probably the hardest required fight in the series, taking a lot of time and strategy. It’s not over yet though. BB reveals that the fight was a ruse, and that it gave him just enough time to reach the portal to become God, and hops in.

Realizing what must be done, Freddy sends himself in to fight alone. He orders Toy Freddy to take the crew away. Toy Freddy meets with his old friend, Namine from Kingdom Hearts, and has her draw the crew, causing them to forget who Freddy is.

In between time, Freddy and Balloon Boy meet. BB has ascended to Godhood, absorbing the power of all the previous BBs across time that Freddy and co have killed. And at the same time, he has discovered something. A new universe, similar to theirs but free from debauchery; the original FNaF universe. He plans to break into it, and absorb all those who live there.

Freddy and Balloon Boy have one final fight. BB continuously kills Freddy, however he does not give in. Eventually, Freddy reflects one of BB’s attacks to his dismay, and hears the cry of the world’s heart. Using everything he has, Freddy takes down BB once and for all, using Savior’s Inhale to end it for good. And after that, it’s over. Freddy is gone, his fate left open. None of his friends will remember who he was, outside of Toy Freddy. His accomplishments will be forgotten for the rest of time, with no one knowing the great sacrifice he made. The end.

In spite of its flaws, Act 3 is an amazing end to the series. It’s cheesy, stereotypical, sad and funny, and I couldn't imagine it ending any other way. It’s worth replaying just for the ending alone.

And with that, the series is over. There were a few extra things I didn’t mention here, but those are either currently not a part of CC or are just canceled games that never finished. It’s sad to see it go, but this series is something special. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fan game reach the amount of further fan games spinning off the fan games than I have seen with FNaFb. This series clearly clicks in a way with a lot of people, including myself. I wouldn’t have gotten into RPG Maker 4 years ago if I never played these games.

If you don’t think you could get past the humor or premise of these games, then it’s probably not for you. FNaFb requires an acquired taste of sorts to enjoy to its fullest. Turn based RPGs is one of the more controversial genres, and the FNaF series has never been too respected by most people. However, if you can get past that and want to enjoy some of the best RPG combat and battles I’ve ever experienced, as well as some genuinely funny dialogue, please give this game a shot. While I never expect this game to receive the respect I think it deserves, especially since it barely even respects itself, I hope my review can make you think twice about ignoring this game and chopping it up to be just another FNaF fangame, because it is so much more than that.

Halo is the #1 game that I just cannot understand the reception it gets. It's constantly being touted as an aged, clunky mess, which baffles me.

In nearly every sense, I'd describe Halo as a masterpiece. The gameplay itself is easily the most notable aspect. It's heavily focused on strategy, planning out your approach to combat and causing you to constantly shift and adjust for your everchanging predicament. Rather than just having a stock number of guns you switch out on the fly ala Doom, the game gives only two slots to work with, which creates this constant trade off of guns, either using anything available or salvaging any ammo you can find, in every fight. People will describe the combat as slow paced, but I think they're missing the point. Sure, there's little movement options for you to use, but how you move around is but a small part of your options. You have to use anything you can, whittling down the enemy numbers in a smart way until you've won. This is the key aspect that makes Halo's combat work.

Despite this focus on strategy though, the game is also surprisingly open ended on what you can do in combat. The guns are just one small part of a much wider range of tools to use. There's multiple vehicles, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There's environmental things like turrets and shields, or even just the landscape itself and it's features that you can take advantage of. Later on, the game just dumps a bunch of options for you to use and allows you to run wild. Despite this though, you can't just use any option you want to win. As with its gunplay, you have to use each tool strategically. It's very impressive how well the game keeps its core strategic feel even with such a wide array of options to choose from. There's no catch all, you have to put everything together and decide your best course of action in battle.

However even then, Halo throws multiple curve balls at you, the biggest being The Flood. Compared to the small numbered, strategically minded Covenant, The Flood rush at you with at incredibly high volumes over extended periods of time, completely changing how you tackle combat. They're generally weak and dumb, but their constant bombardment and numbers is the true threat. Rather than the typical plan and execution, The Flood brings you straight back to more classic shooters, being thrown wave after wave of enemies. While not as deep or strategic, there's definitely some thinking that has to be done to make your way through. The Flood fights brought some of the biggest rushes in the game.

To settle this all down, Halo has one of my favorite environments in any game. The Halo itself is this simplistic but endlessly beautiful spectacle. It's hard not to stare out at the ring in the sky, or the vast skylines around the maps. It's not just visual, the world itself is endlessly interesting. The story isn't anything too crazy or complex, being a rather simplistic tale, but has just enough depth to make the world unique and immersive. The cutscenes themselves are also pretty brief, giving you all the information and some nice character moments before sending you right back into the fray, with nearly every being under 3 minutes. That white flash always put me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was about to happen.

To top it off, the atmosphere is incredibly heavy. Each locale has a great grasp of space and color, and creates this universal alien feel to the entire game. The swamp is a staple at this. The cutscene just before gives the first real piece of tension and stakes to the game, but it's left incredibly vague outside of a obvious huge threat. Your thrust into this dark, alien swamp, where you find corpses of humans and Covenant. This area, and generally the entire chapter, is terrifying and constantly intense. There's obviously a greater threat at play, you just have to go deeper. Even places like the grassy mountains or the beach, easily the most Earthlike parts of the world, not only just feel slightly off in geography, but are filled with these strange, blocky alien structures that are clearly not human nor Covenant. One final one I'd like to mention here is the Library. The entire facility has this larger than life feel to it. It makes you feel incredibly insignificant to the bigger world around you, almost like your stepping into a chamber of Gods. Everything is foreign and clearly made for something much higher than you, and I love it.

There's also the music, which exemplifies everything I just mentioned before. Halo has one of, if not my favorite main theme of any game. It completely encapsulates the feel of the game itself. The rest of the soundtrack is more atmospheric, punctuating the most iconic scenes in the game. Outside the obvious main theme, Shadows is a great example of this. Every time it played, I got on full alert. While I couldn't tell what the game was exactly using it for sometimes, the effect it has cannot be overlooked.

I think the biggest point of contention comes with the level design. Generally, I had no issue with it. Halo is a game that relies much more heavily on the enemies and players, rather than the environment in which the battle takes place. What, where, and how enemies are placed can completely change how you take on a fight. Even for The Flood, who are more repetitive in nature, can get by due to the variety of options you have against them. Sadly, I can't say it's void of issues. While I generally didn't mind the repetitive nature of the blocky environments, especially in the first snow level and the Library, I can't lie and say I wasn't sick of it when I was forced to go through the snow level backwards. Was it presented in a unique way while throwing The Flood in to make it more diverse? Yes, I'd say so, and the cross Covenant and Flood fights were pretty fun. But it wasn't fun to go through all these again, especially since the snow level was one of the longest in the game already. Outside that though, I have no issues with the levels.

People really need to come back to Halo: Combat Evolved. While there are many games I like that I can understand the lack of general appeal for, Combat Evolved just feels generally overlooked. It seems to be regarded as the awkward and clunky start of the true franchise, when rather it feels like a triumphant achievement of game design, having an incredible amount of thought put into each and every aspect of the game. Go into this game on Heroic with an open mindset, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. (also please do not play with the god awful remastered graphics)

Overall worse than Sonic 1, but not by much. Not bad but I really wasn't a fan of the level design changes. The game starts out incredibly basic, and you can pretty much hold right non stop for the first 3 zones. After that it actually gets decent, but it's a bumpy road. Mystic Cave was awesome but that's about it. Oil Ocean and Metropolis were mind numbing, especially the ladder.

And don't get me started on the final level. The airship is so disappointing. It goes for platforming but it fails at it and just feels frustrating. Sonic 1 had precise platforming, but there was always room for error. If you fall, you just hit some spikes or lava. Here, it's instant death, and its aggravating. The bosses thankfully are enjoyable and are actually well designed (mostly), incorporating Sonic's moves into combat in a fun way.

The presentation of this game is the main draw. The visuals are beautiful and much better than Sonic 1, giving so much life to each area. And the music, dear god. This might be one of the best sound tracks in gaming to this day, countless iconic tracks that all fit the style of Sonic incredibly well. With one outlier, the airship. God damn it.

I don't really have much else to say. It's a very "higher highs, lower lows" type of game, but overall, great art direction cannot save a game from a mixed bag of gameplay. At least it's short.

Easily the best Sonic game I've played. Great interconnected levels, fantastic visuals, very good gameplay with ACTUALLY good special stages, two incredible OSTs, etc. This game embodies all of the aspects of Sonic I liked as an outsider looking in, and all the aspects I liked of 1 and 2 while mostly flushing out the trash.

My only complaints are that the bosses fall flat and that I wish the levels had more interactivity ala Marble Zone from Sonic 1, but it's fine. Its level design is so much better than 2's.

If you're like me and Sonic games just never clicked, you need to try this game out.

Note: Played on the Mega Man Legacy Collection.

Disappointment: The Game. After Mega Man 2, I thought the series would reach the same heights, at least in the NES era, but I hoped that it would stay a consistent quality. But no, Mega Man 3 feels like it drops a lot of the features that made 2 so great and tries to make it more like 1, in all the worst ways possible.

Before I complain though, I do wanna give a compliment to the story. This is the first game where there's a slightly more apparent narrative, and by that I mean there's text at the very end, but it's more than we've gotten before. Proto Man is a very cool character and I really hope to see more of him in future games. Also I was not expecting Wily to literally die, though I am curious how he'll come back.

First is the combat. It's alright, but a notable step down. The abilities in this game are less interesting and versatile. I get they couldn't just copy the ones in 2, and it's hard to come up with good concepts, but I don't know man. None of the abilities really stood out. In 2, each had a purpose but they could be used in a variety of situations. Air worked like a shotgun, Wood was a shield that became a powerful projectile, Quick obliterated bosses and groups of enemies, etc. I found myself constantly switching between them to get through levels, not because I had to but because it was fun. In this game though, the abilities just feel clunky. Snake, Gemini, and Spark are good examples of this, being really slow or way to specific to be useful.

The bosses also show a downgrade. In 2, the bosses were easier than in 1, but were more advanced. They also still had weaknesses, but you also could take them down with any weapon you wanted without much trouble. In 3 though, it feels like they just decided to go back to 1's design. If you don't use the ability the boss is weak to, you'll be doing chip damage. The bosses also move super fast in this game, which I generally wouldn't have a problem with if half the abilities didn't move like snails.

The enemies in this game also suck. Some of them are fine, but a lot are really annoying. They decided that in this game, a lot less enemies would die in a single hit. It sounds good on paper, but when these enemies appear as, if not more frequently than one hit enemies, do a shit ton of damage, have annoying movement patters, and are small, than it becomes unbearable. Enemies are also more oftenly placed at annoying spots where you can't hit them well. I can't remember any specifics right now since the game is kinda blending together in my head rn, but I know there's a good few like this.

The level design also feels worse. None of it was particularly fun, and once again it felt more like 1. It's not nearly on the same tier as 1, I never got too angry from the levels themselves, but I certainly wasn't enjoying them as consistently as 2 either. The only stage I remember truly enjoying was the one with the projectors from 2's final boss, which I thought was a fun gimmick that expanded upon the one found in 2. Surprisingly though, I found the Wily levels to be pretty enjoyable. Ignoring the bosses at the end which were pretty consistently annoying, I had a fun time going through the stages, though they were also very very short which played a good part.

I think the part of this game that's easily worse though are those 4 levels that unlock after you beat the main 8 guys, but before the Wily stages. Seeing Mega Man 2 bosses again was kind of neat, but the stages themselves were really bad and boring. They basically slightly remixed the original levels, making them overall more difficult but notably shorter. Also these levels all have 2 bosses in them, so if you get a game over you have to fight all the bosses again. At this point of the game I was save state scumming so it didn't really effect me.

Also, the most disappointing aspect; the music. I didn't realize that 2's composer dipped after that game and never returned to Mega Man, so going into this game and not hearing the same style of incredible music was disappointing. I did like the game's main theme and Proto Man's theme though.

Mega Man 3 is overall a step down. It feels like a worrying setup for how the rest of the NES era is going to go. I really am hoping that they learn from their mistakes and shift more towards a fun and slightly easier but still thrilling experience (also please add the difficulty options back, that was such a random removal).

I am not a fan of platformers. I am not a fan of cutesy art styles. I am not a fan of older indie games. Everything about FEZ initially put me off. Every single time I saw screenshots or gameplay, I looked at it as just another boring late 2000's/early 2010's "indie masterpiece" with a gimmick and nothing more. Because of this, understand that when I say FEZ is a masterpiece that is unlike anything that has come before or after, I really mean it.

On the surface, the game is a tough sell. A short collectathon where you rotate the world to pick up cubes and a handful of other collectibles in a sizeable world map. Nothing bad, just nothing immediately grabbing either. Screenshots don't help either; the game just doesn't initially look interesting in stills.

FEZ is the type of game where playing it yourself is the only way to truly understand it. FEZ's gameplay, controls, visuals and sound all come together in a specific way that can only be experienced though interaction. I watched someone play FEZ before ever touching the game, and I thought it looked boring. It wasn't until I got my hands on the game where everything clicked.

Once you get into it, FEZ is fun from beginning to end. A lot of people don't like the platforming in this game, which genuinely baffles me. The game just feels fun to move around in. Gomez has this specific feel and weight to him that is unmatched outside of Sonic maybe. It's hard to articulate, but FEZ is the only platformer I've played where the physics and feel of the character is as good as the platforming, which it in itself is really good too. The game is constantly throwing new mechanics and challenges at you. While the game never goes into much depth with them, the point is that almost every challenge feels unique and different to play. The platforming is connected together by one large world map, which might be the most addicted I've been to exploring a map ever. Every room is highlighted with treasure, and is given a nice gold sheen once you're done. A lot of the satisfaction has to do with the puzzles and secrets themselves.

And speaking of secrets, FEZ has a largely secret underside that is surprisingly overlooked. After you've finished the base game, New Game+ turns FEZ from a platformer with puzzle elements into a puzzle game with platformer elements. FEZ includes an entire language, numerical system, and movement cipher, all to make its secrets more elusive. Writing stuff down and taking notes is a heavily underappreciated and underutilized part of games that have sadly become more and more rare in games. A game designed around notes can provide a more thrilling and immersive experience than any quest log or information map could provide, and FEZ defines itself by that. The puzzles themselves too are no easy feat. For most of them, you're going to have to carefully observe your surroundings and use all your abilities available to solve them. There's also Red Cubes; puzzles that took the entire community coming together to help solve. Hell, one to this day isn't actually truly solved, being brute forced by the community by inputting every single possible combination for weeks, which I think perfectly showcases the intrigue of the mystery and the enjoyment of puzzle solving in FEZ.

The general presentation of this game is also unbelievable. I already mentioned how important it is to play FEZ to truly understand it, but I just want to reiterate. FEZ's world is animated, and constantly moving. There's so much flair and love in the environment that is so easy to overlook. The visuals would be nothing though without the incredible sound design and music. Every interaction and movement in this game has a sound, and it is genuinely some of the best sound effects I've ever seen in the game. From Gomez's footsteps changing from what he's stepping on, each region having its own bird species to personalize their atmosphere, valves and wheels playing small little tunes when you turn them, to that ever satisfying noise that plays when you solve a puzzle, FEZ has a audible identity I've yet seen matched. It's kind of scary how much personality seeps out of every aspect of this game. And this identity extends into the music too. The soundtrack is what convinced me to stop overlooking FEZ and to actually try it. The entire OST is fantastic, and contains some of my favorite songs in gaming (and possibly ever). Just as each object and action is defined by a sound, every room and discovery is defined by a song. I won't go into examples here, as I think it speaks for itself.

Overall, I can't recommend FEZ enough. Despite being one of the most iconic indies ever, I genuinely don't think I've seen a game as relatively overlooked and underappreciated as FEZ. No one talks about it, no one makes fanart, no one mods it, no one makes countless shitty video essays on it. My best guess is that most people feel the same way I did; I knew about it for years, but I was put off at a surface level and thought it looked generic. FEZ probably isn't for everyone, however if anything above looked interesting, please play it.

Spoiler warning for here on out. I'm going to leave this review untagged just so more people read the above and hopefully play it, but I can't not talk about some other aspects.

First, I want to mention the story and worldbuilding. I haven't researched into the lore and story of FEZ, only picking up the pieces it does show, however everything about it is super interesting. It feels like every game I love nowadays has some sort of sense of scale to it with godlike beings, and FEZ might be the best execution of it I've seen. The aliens are genuinely terrifying. They're kept so vague that I can't tell their intentions. Their designs are so simplified that I can't tell if that's what they actually look like. Their home world(?) is perfectly bizarre and has an overwhelming song that reinforces the scale. The scariest moment in the game for me involved them, that being the skull room. I have no clue what this room means or why it exists, but holding the skull of one of these aliens was so unsettling to me. To see their physical existence and to hold it in my hands just felt overwhelmingly wrong, which can extend to the entire room. I just felt out of place, like I wasn't meant to discover this. The song here too being one of, if not my favorite in the game really played into this too (coincidentally it was the song that convinced me to play the game). It's been a while since I've felt so uncomfortable yet equally mesmerized and intrigued by something in a game.

Finally, above all I mentioned before, even the puzzles themselves, FEZ is a game about scope. The scope of your world being tripled by the third dimension, the scope of the map and the secrets deep within, the scope of the puzzles and the intricate solutions, the scope of the past and what came before, the scope of the universe and those who live in it, and the scope of existence itself and everything that makes it up.

The ending of FEZ is something that I haven't been able to get out of my mind from the second after I finished the game. The visuals combined with the somber yet hypnotic tune creates an ending that's hard to describe with words. It seems sudden and out of place first, but just as the world gets realized as you play through it on New Game+, so does the ending. I'm not sure what the ending means for the story, if anything, but I know what it means for me, and that's all that really matters. And I can't think of a better way to end it then Gomez's celebration. However, there's also the second ending. I already went in with low expectations based off of what I was told, and I get why. The second ending is untriumphant, silent, and quickly over with, and that's the best part. The first ending is all about showing the beauty in creation itself. The entire game has you expanding your scope, so the ending pulls you back home to show you the complexity of yourself on the smallest scale possible. For the second ending to be grandiose, it would have to take away from what the first ending means. And in that sense, I think it's perfect.