I think the best way to experience this game is to go in as blind as possible because a lot of the fun of an adventure is the surprise discoveries you make along the way. So while this review won’t contain spoilers in the most traditional sense, there will be spoilers on a lot of aspects of the game that Nintendo didn’t dive into much with their pre release material so if that is something that you don’t want to know about, feel free to stop reading here. Right, let's get into it.

Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild and as such it builds upon the very solid open air Zelda gameplay foundation BotW laid. You still have your breakable weapons, different armour pieces, stamina, shrines, Koroks, Blood Moons, cooking, temperature, etc all wrapped up in a massive open physics sandbox that gives you the freedom to essentially make your own adventures.
The first change to get into are Link’s abilities. Gone are the Sheikah Slate abilities like Remote Bombs and Stasis and in come the new Zonai abilities from Link’s fancy new arm. The Ultrahand is the most impressive of these new abilities, allowing Link to pick up and manipulate most objects and being able to stick them together. Combined with the new Zonai objects you can find, like fans and wheels, you can essentially build anything your imagination limits you to. Need to cross a river? Stick some logs together and slap a fan on the back to make a raft. Want to get across a gap you can’t jump across? Stick some pieces of wood together to build a bridge. It’s so impressive how well the game gets your makeshift creations to work while allowing a pretty high cap of the number of objects allowed to be stuck together (there is a limit around 30 I think). The things people have been making have been genuinely incredible, from giant mechs to airborne battle vehicles, it truly does seem like imagination is the limit for the Ultrahand. And don’t worry if you’re not the most creative person in the world, the game does a great job of leaving specific objects nearby when you need them to point you in the right direction of what to build.
Next up we have Ascend which is exactly what it sounds like, Link has the ability to ascend through ceilings or structures above his head. The only limits to this one is that Link must be standing on something to use it and the object above has to be close enough and wide enough for the marker to turn blue. Once used, Link shoots right up through the ceiling, allowing you to reach areas that would’ve been much more difficult to reach otherwise. It’s great for quickly getting out of the new caves that have popped up around Hyrule and gaining elevation.
The third major new ability is Recall. This can be used on basically any non living object that can be moved and it takes something that has been moved and returns it back along the path it has travelled. So you can turn gears in the opposite direction to allow Link to ride up them or have a ball travel back and stop Recall early so it drops in a position you want it to. I’ve seen people pull off some crazy makeshift weapon tech with this ability and it’s genuinely astounding to watch.
Fuse is an ability that lets you fuse things to your weapon or shield. Weapons in this game have been decayed due to the Upheaval and are now much weaker so with the new Fuse ability you can fuse basically anything to your weapon to improve it. From really long sticks to spring shields, Fuse keeps the combat fresh by allowing so many weird and wacky combinations to experiment with. Like I was able to make an ice axe by fusing an Ice Keese wing to a sword and it’s really cool that just works. You can also fuse stuff to arrows to make stuff like fire, ice, electric, and even homing arrows so it feels like basically every item you find can be used in some way or another.
You can also find the Autobuild ability which has a bunch of preset builds for the Ultrahand that can be found as well as storing your last 30 builds which is really handy for quickly building something you want to use or storing a favourite build you worked hard on. It can use the Zonite material as well to create whatever objects you don’t have lying nearby for the thing you’re trying to autobuild.
Now these abilities are all pretty cool in isolation but the way they make exploration of the world much more fun and easier than BotW did is incredible. Being able to build vehicles that make traversing the land much quicker, or ascend through bits of a cliff face to reach higher ground instead of climbing it, or recall something that has fallen through the sky so you can jump off and glide to somewhere that looks interesting makes the exploration of TotK a lot more varied and more accessible and more exciting than what you could do in BotW (I know some people could pull off to crazy movement tech in that game but allowing people like me easier access to more movement options is massive). You still have your horses as well but being able to build makeshift cars and aeromobiles is so much more fun.

On top of the new abilities, there’s been a lot of really neat design changes that help make exploring the massive world better than before. Shrines that you haven’t completed have spirals of green light above them making them easier to spot from a distance, unactivated towers have four spotlights shining from their base, and there’s massive geoglyphs (we’ll get to those later) that catch the eye from afar. Essentially the world has been designed to make more interesting things much more easier to spot and that is essential to the core gameplay loop of this style of Zelda. The more things you find to explore, the more items you pick up and the more options you gain to use in combat as well as the shrines acting again as essentially piece of heart givers/stamina wheel improvements. The towers now launching you into the air is also a huge change because it allows you to spot shrines on the land, mark them with pins, and glide as close to them as you can get. Like they genuinely have improved the exploration aspect so much that I found almost double the amount of shrines in TotK than I did in BotW in 40 hours and I even went on to find all 152 shrines in TotK.

The next new aspect to discuss is the world itself. While this game does reuse the BotW Hyrule map, it has built upon it in a few ways. First we can now explore the skies with a bunch of new sky islands in a similar vein to Skyloft and the skies from Skyward Sword. The sky islands in TotK themselves aren’t that big outside of the starting area one. A lot of them are used to house shrines or you can find maps that point to hidden treasure elsewhere in the world (these tickled the Wind Waker treasure maps vibes for me), and there’s a couple with little skydiving minigames which are fun. The sky also tends to hold some of the cooler Zonai vehicle builds lying about which are great fun to use. You can also find these big capsule machines where if you put Zonai charges in you get a bunch of capsules containing Zonai parts like the fans and wheels mentioned earlier for you to pull out wherever and use to build with. The sky islands are also pretty handy for reaching different areas of the surface below without having to traverse the whole surface so it works well in tandem for movement options.
The surface is largely the same map as the one BotW used but the Upheaval event has caused a lot of changes throughout it. Exploring this Hyrule felt a lot like exploring the Kanto region in Pokemon Gold/Silver. Yes the core is still the same but there’s so many new things that it’s cool to see what’s changed. You have the new caves that have popped up which hold their own goodies. Every cave has a big glowing blue frog to find in it which gives a Bubbul Gem if you kill it, which can be used in a quest. The towns have undergone a lot of changes as the land has shifted and objects have fallen from the sky. Kakiriko now houses a bunch of ring ruins for example, so there’s a lot of fun to be had revisiting places and seeing what’s changed. They have also added a few new enemy types to the game so now you can find stuff like Floormasters, Like Likes, and even Gleeok from the very first Zelda game makes an appearance. I never had much of a problem with the limited enemy variety in BotW but it is nice seeing more variety here. Guardians are also gone which for me is a nice thing that helps with exploration because I always found those things an absolute pain to get away from.
The last area kept mostly under wraps prerelease are the Depths. There’s now massive holes around Hyrule that take you to beneath the surface to explore this dark and creepy area. This area can be a bit of a pain to explore if you’re not prepared as it is so dark at first that you can’t really see anything. You can use the new lightbulb plants found throughout Hyrule to bring light to this area as you explore. You can also find Lightroots which act as fast travel points and reveal an area of the map while also bringing light to an area of the Depths. What’s cool about the Lightroots is that they are also tied to the surface as every single Lightroot is the base of a Shrine so every time you find a Shrine on land, you can mark that location on your Depths map to find a Lightroot and vice versa. Again the way everything works in tandem is again, incredible. Exploring one area helps with exploring another and it all works so well. Now what the Depths hold are the treasure chests from the Sky maps as well as the Zonite need to expand your battery for operating Zonai devices. You can also find some of the better weapons in the game as well as a good supply of bomb flowers so the Depths are really handy for resource gathering once you’ve gotten a hang of exploring them. The Depths are also the main home of a new substance called Gloom. Gloom is this red like substance that if Link stands on it, instead of losing a heart, it breaks a heart, meaning you cannot recover that heart until Link returns to an area of light. This prevents players from being able to constantly eat recovery foods, adding an extra layer of challenge to the Depths and when you have Gloom variants of enemies who can break hearts from hitting you, then it can be pretty tough down there. What’s really impressive about the Depths though is that it literally covers the whole of the surface map. It’s genuinely incredible that you can jump from the sky and fall through a hole to the Depths without a single loading screen when all 3 areas cover the exact same size of map. And like this can be overwhelming but the improvements made to traversal as well as how well everything works in tandem genuinely makes this incredibly large world a lot more accessible to explore than the base one it was built off in BotW.

Right, let's dive into the story side of things. The story here is one I found a lot more interesting than BotWs and probably up there with my favourite Zelda story in the series despite some issues in how it’s presented. The beginning with Link and Zelda exploring the depths beneath Hyrule Castle with this creepy music in the background brings an incredible atmosphere to kick things off. There’s an ominous feel to the whole exploration here that puts you at unease and one that culminates well to kick off the beginning of the game. The ending sequence is up there for my favourite final boss in the whole series, without spoiling anything, it was epic and extremely hype and I loved how the battle transitioned throughout. I thought people were exaggerating when they were saying the experience shook them but my gosh, I was astounded by the end.
Everything in between the beginning and end is where I have some nitpicks with how the story is presented. Once again we have memories that can be found in any order that tells the bulk of the story here. Tying these to the massive geoglyphs you can find around Hyrule is much appreciated compared to the photos used in BotW. These are much easier to find making the process less frustrating, and the story content is super interesting, detailing the events of the Imprisoning War that saw Ganondorf sealed away after he tried to overthrow the first King of Hyrule Rauru. There’s a rich history here that I find really interesting and seeing it all play out is super cool but I’m not a huge fan of how it’s told in such a disjointed manner. It’s an area I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more structure with, maybe make it clearer that there’s a recommended order to view these in like how they gave a recommendation on which area to explore when going through the main story quests. The modern day side of things deals with finding the sages and fixing the Master Sword side of things, more of the standard affair of Zelda here but I do appreciate the role the sages are given which help make them feel more memorable and I love how the Master Sword is restored, I had a lot of feels during the final sequence of that quest. So while I do have some issues with the way the story is told throughout the game, the actual content of the story makes my issue with it feel relatively minor and more like one of the few immediate aspects I think they can improve on next time.

The main story quest this time once again takes you through the lands of the Rito, the Gorons, the Zora, and the Gerudo as you visit each place to find out how the Upheaval has caused havoc with these races. These can be done in any order and each one sees Link team up with a sage to traverse the world to find a Temple that needs exploring. Each sage grants a new ability to Link, like Tulin provides a gust to propel Link further distances while gliding or Yunobo can be rolled up into a ball and fired like a cannon. The way Link teams up with the sages here is very reminiscent of Wind Waker but this time they have their own AI so you don’t have to deal with having to move them everywhere yourself. These new abilities act in a similar manner to how you would find an item to explore a specific dungeon with only in a less traditional manner. The Temples themselves are an improvement over the Divine Beasts as dungeons but unfortunately not quite on the same level as past Zelda games offerings. These Temples are designed in a way that is very open ended like the world itself. You’re often presented with 5 locks to undo by finding specific points in the temple to activate with your sage's ability and it’s fun figuring out how to get to each point but I do miss the structured dungeons of traditional Zelda. Like you have the dungeon map immediately, there’s no locked doors with keys to find, you just use the abilities you have to make your way through these Temples as you see fit. At its lowest point is the Water Temple which barely feels like a structure at all but then you have something like the Wind Temple or the Fire Temple which puts this new style of design to good use and makes an enjoyable experience out of them even if it does fall short to the traditional Zelda dungeon style for me. The unique areas and backgrounds do make these Temples a lot more varied and exciting to explore compared to the Divine Beasts and the area where things have improved most are the boss battles. We got proper unique boss battles back baby and each one is a masterpiece in design making for memorable fights. The first one I did was the Wind Temple and the way it incorporates Tulin’s unique ability makes for one of the most memorable Zelda bosses I’ve fought. The way the music dynamically changes up during the fight to add in a section from Rito Village WHICH IS DRAGON ROOST ISLAND FROM WIND WAKER SENT LITERAL CHILLS THROUGH ME. As a massive Wind Waker fan that fight was truly peak and something that felt like a homage to a game that is so special to me. All the boss fights are genuinely fantastic, they pulled out all the stops here and it does make up for the slightly lacklustre temples for me. There’s also a couple more dungeon-like areas on top of the four main ones so there’s plenty to get into here. For those wanting more puzzle focused challenges, once again it’s the shrines that provide those. They put Link’s new abilities to the test and are nice little headscratchers to figure out inbetween the main story quests.

Side quests and side adventures make a return from BotW. This is the area where the content overload starts to hit me most because there are so many of them. They can make for a nice change of pace and some are genuinely interesting. I really liked finding the ancient texts on the flower shaped sky islands and learning more about the history of the world. I feel like a lot of the side quests are kinda just alright, they feel like something like the Korok seeds where it’s best to do what you feel like doing otherwise they can wear thin and I think that’s the way they were designed. Basically something to add to your adventures along the way rather than be something to seek out and 100%.

It took me over 100 hours to reach the end credits of TotK. The improvements made to the exploration side of things saw me find every single Lightroot in the Depths and complete all 152 shrines before tackling the endgame. There was so much fun to be had in the optional quests I decided to take on along the way but despite having put so much time into it, there is still plenty I want to go back and do. The Lurelin village quest looked really interesting and there's a specific Gleelok I want to try and take down and that’s the magic of TotK. The weaknesses it has compared to traditional Zelda are more than made up for by the sheer sense of wonder and joy exploring this world brings. The incredible volume of content shoved into this tiny Switch game card means you are always discovering something, always noting something you want to come back and investigate, always finding something that can be of use to you later. TotK takes the sense of adventure Zelda has always instilled from its very beginning and pushes it to a level that is scarcely comprehensible. The freedom on offer here truly makes it feel like your imagination is the only limitation. For a game to absorb me in a world this large without me getting to a point where I’m beelining for the story portions is a testament to the wondrous design they put into getting everything to work and flow in tandem with one another. I find it hard to comprehend how this game managed to take BotW and blow it out of the water to such a large degree. The few issues I had with the game feel so minor compared to the joy I felt while deeply absorbed in playing the game. It’s incredible to me that they have so many technical systems in play here and the only faults I found in my play time was a couple of areas where the framerate drops and one instance where the game froze for a second while diving from the sky into the depths. The fact exploration in TotK gave me that same feeling of joy that Wind Waker did when exploring its seas has enamoured me with this game. I think it might very well have my favourite incarnation of Zelda and Ganondorf. Its story and bosses are up there with the best in the series and the creativity on offer here is on a whole nother level.

Tears of the Kingdom is a wondrous experience that captures the very essence of adventure. It takes the foundation laid by Breath of the Wild and somehow elevates the whole experience to heights that are scarcely imaginable. There’s a couple of areas where I’d like a little bit more of the traditional Zelda structure to return but otherwise this is a truly magical game and one that feels like a genuine contender for my favourite game of all time.

Very faithful remake of the two GBA Advance Wars titles, with everything feeling mechanically similar with an updated graphical style.
I can understand the decision to go with a toybox visual style for the battles, it's very reminiscent of the Japanese artwork but personally it didn't quite vibe with me. The character artwork and the handful of cutscenes are genuinely incredible and show the potential of how Advance Wars could look.
There's been a handful additions to this package. We have some voice acting which is nice to have. Andy shares his VA with Ash Ketchum and it's hard to tell them apart at times!
A casual mode for newcomers is included. From what I can tell this doesn't really change much. Depending on the map, casual mode either gives you an additional unit or two at the start, an additional property or two, or downgrades one or two enemy units (like a Medium Tank being a regular Tank instead). It's helpful but I don't think it makes the game that much more accessible. I feel like scaling the damage would be nice as well but it's a difficult balance to find.
They also added a turn rewind. It's nice to have but it literally resets you back to the start of that turn which is pretty limiting and frustrating when you only want to undo one move and not your whole turn. I feel like this is something they should have had right when Fire Emblem has a pretty in depth turn rewind.
There's also online play added but it's limited to 1v1 while local multiplayer allows for 4 player matches.

So the new additions are nice, though I feel they should've went a little bit further, the rest of the package is where it shines though. Advance Wars 1+2 are two fantastic strategy focused games with colourful casts and plenty of content. AW1 spends the bulk of it's time introducing players to its mechanics and various units. AW2 takes everything from AW1, rebalances CO powers and diversifies the map design with new gimmicks and objectives that really gets the brain working. No doubt there are two fantastic strategy titles on offer here and it's nice the series has been given another chance to shine.

While the new additions don't quite hit expectations, there's plenty to love here and a lot of love and charm has been put into remaking these games. Fans of the GBA titles will find a familiar experience with a new coat of paint while newcomers have two top notch strategy games to dive in to

Ah Octopath, a series I want to love so much more but a few issues eventually catch up and wear me down.
II does build upon what was a mostly solid foundation of the first game, adding in things like Crossed Paths to get a little more interactions within the cast, and the new latent abilities which help make each character feel more unique in battle as each one gets their own special move, like Agnea being able to make single target spells hit every target or Partitio being able to refill his BP. This coupled with better knowledge on how important gear is in Octopath and how to make full use of Bewildering Grace allowed me to push much further than I did in the original, even beating 3 stories, before it's issues caught up to me after 60ish hours.

For all the improvements this game made, the main issues I had with the first game went unaddressed here. My main issue is the game does not respect my time. EXP once again is limited to only your active party members, so if you wanna experience every story, you're constantly needing to level up inactive party members so they're not getting wiped in a single hit. Difficulty options could've helped with that as well, like having an easy mode that gives more EXP so you're not relying on propping a 0.1% x100 EXP Bewildering Grace so much. I don't mind grinding a little bit but my gosh it felt like every chapter I was having to level up a character so I could enjoy their story and it wore me down. There's also no random encounter slider so there's also the frustration of having to constantly run from battles when you just want to explore and try and find some better gear. And the most frustrating thing about these issues is that this team already had all these options in the Bravely games on 3DS.

I did manage to put 60 hours into this though, so it's not all frustrations. I adore the HD 2D aesthetic, the environments are beautiful and it makes the world a joy to look at. The stories here are a step up from the original, with Partitio trying to eradicate poverty and Temenos little mystery ride being highlights for me. Also enjoyed Throne's story a lot, there's a lot of interesting narratives here. The day and night stuff is fun, with different path actions opening up and being able to explore the seas is very cool. I also appreciate the turn based battle system and random encounters in this game felt less resource draining and less HP spongy compared to the first game.

Frustrations aside from issues I was hoping to have been addressed, Octopath Traveler II is a good game and for those that don't mind a little bit of grinding there is a lot to love here.

A fun, charming, and cosy adventure with a beautiful storybook aesthetic.
The game has a fairly unique control scheme where all Cereza's actions are mapped to the left side of the controller and all of Cheshire's actions are handled by the right side. It's something I found really fun, controlling two characters at the same time, solving puzzles and keeping Cereza safe while Cheshire handled combat. I can appreciate that keeping track of and controlling two characters at the same time can be a difficult thing to do but with this being on Switch, you could do a co-operative playthrough with each player using one joy-con to make things more manageable if the controls are something you're struggling with.

The adventure itself is very fun, like a mix of Zelda and Metroid in a way, where you explore this forest and gain new abilities to access areas you couldn't reach before. Each ability allows new puzzles to be solved whether it's pulling plants out the way or bouncing on giant mushrooms. I wouldn't say it's challenging, more cosy, something you can relax with and enjoy as you figure things out.

Combat is simple compared to the main series. You can still dodge and attack, but the focus is more on figuring out how to expose the enemies weak spots rather than flashy combos. There's some Bayonetta/Platinum esque action towards the end with some bosses but otherwise the focus here is more on being a charming adventure than high octane action.

Overall I really enjoyed this one a lot. I love that the team were allowed to experiment and make something unique. You can tell they put a lot of love into this and wanted to explore a different aspect of the Bayonetta world and that's something I can respect and appreciate a lot

A gorgeous remaster of a GameCube classic.
The core of the game is still that original version but they managed to take an already visually impressive game and somehow managed to make this look sooooo much better.
On top of the visual upgrade there's a bunch of control options, GC original style, Wii pointer style, and a modern dualstick option. With the dualstick option I turned on gyro aiming as well and my gosh they managed to nail the sensitivity for this game. The gyro aiming isn't constantly moving erratically with every controller movement, instead moving so subtlety with regular controller movements that you can forget it's on at times. It's perfectly designed for assistance where needed and that's how I like it. Granted the L targeting is still here so gyro isn't super necessary but it's still nice for the few occasions you can't lock on.
They've also added a few accessibility options, like a colourblind mode, which while I don't require it, I appreciate them adding it for those who do.
Other new things include gallery stuff concept art, models, soundtrack from the original and remastered versions.

Nintendo remasters rarely get this sort of above and beyond treatment, but with Metroid Prime, Retro Studios took a lot of care and time updating this for Nintendo Switch and making it feel like a modern game. It helps that Metroid Prime was already an all time great experience but the additions and tweaks here help make this an incredible version of an already incredible game

I know this isn't for everyone. I know people don't like how much grinding is involved in raising your Digimon or that your Digimon dies in these kinds of games but my gosh I absolutely love the blend of virtual pet raising and RPG mechanics.
It's such a unique experience, you're always building for the future, whether its building up the city by recruiting Digimon, gathering resources to help raise your Digimon or even just training your Digimon at the gym. If you're treating your Digimon properly and doing what you can in each generation, then raising your next generation becomes easier and your Digimon can become even stronger, allowing you to progress even further. It's such a satisfying gameplay loop for me. Yeah I might be spending a couple of hours in the gym raising my Digimon to Mega but by doing so I get a good 10 or so hours exploring the world and recruiting more and more powerful Digimon for the city. I love it so much

Lovely remake/remaster of the game that kickstarted Kirby's resurgence of 2D platforming
The bulk of the game is largely Kirby's Adventure Wii (thank you Nintendo for trying to confuse the European market by giving us the US name this time lmao) with new mech and sand power ups to play with as well as decorative masks that can be earned from playing the new minigames.
Kirby's Adventure Wii was a classic and this doesn't do anything to detract from that original experience so it's a fantastic experience for those who haven't played it.

The main new attraction is the Malagor epilogue that unlocks when you beat the story mode. Here you play as Malagor trying to recover his abilities. It's a fun new mode as you start of with limited abilities and gain more as you progress. You can also upgrade these abilities to make Malagor much stronger by spending magic points which are gained through collecting items in the stages and performing combos on enemies and blocks to rack up even more magic points.
It's a fun way to wrap up the adventure and give fans who played the original a reason to pick this one up.

My only real complaint is the lack of online multiplayer for the story mode. After Super Mario 3D World and Mario Party Superstars included online multiplayer, I was hoping it would become a standard for Nintendo games like this. Unfortunately it's not the case which is a shame.

This is a great update to an already fantastic Kirby experience

While it wasn't officially marketed as one, Engage feels very much like an anniversary title, one that celebrates the whole 30+ years of the franchise while also introducing a brand new cast to get attached to

Engage's big new addition to the series are the Emblem Rings. Each ring holds a main character from across the whole series. From Marth and Sigurd to Corrin and Byleth, each main entry has a representative here. While there may be some disappointment over certain selections, like Alm not being represented while Eirika at least has her twin Ephraim with her, each game has been represented fairly for the most part, with every character getting beautiful full 3D models and voice acting to represent them. It's a huge difference seeing the love and care Micaiah got in Engage compared to the strange artwork she got in Awakening for example.
Each ring can be equipped to any character, allowing for some skills to be shared over, like Sigurd allows Canter to be used by any unit using him. When using an Emblem Ring you can also Engage with them, where the unit and Emblem become one and get full access to the Emblem's weapons as well as a unique special attack that references the game they are from. Like Engaging with Celica means you can use Warp Ragnarok allowing you to warp like the witches in Gaiden/Echoes and deliver a powerful magic attack.
Each Emblem's inventory is also beautifully representative of the game they come from and as you increase your bond rank with each Emblem, you can eventually gain access to their signature legendary weapon. Marth's inventory starts with a Rapier like he does in Shadow Dragon but eventually you can gain access to his Falchion and my gosh it is so cool seeing all these weapons updated and modelled on an HD console.

On the surface, these Emblem Rings sound and look incredibly powerful, and they are, but somehow Intelligent Systems managed to beautifully balance the maps around their inclusion. Even with all 12 rings in hand, the game never becomes a cakewalk, often maintaining a steady challenge. This is help by skills being more limited and scaled back, like Canter is no longer on every mounted unit and has to passed on through Sigurds skillset, and bosses now carry revival stones meaning they can't just be swept away by one or two powerful attacks meaning you need to engage in these encounters prepared and that means having at least some Emblem Rings available to use. Emblem Rings can only be used for 3 turns while Engaged before needing to be recharged for use which means you can't just burn through them, you have to carefully select when is best to use them in the situation you're currently in.

As mentioned earlier, you can bond with the Emblem Rings and these lead to mini conversations with each one. These are small one sentence back and forths that can include some nice references from each character. It would have been nice to have a little more depth from each conversation but as every Emblem Ring has a support set with every single playable character, I can understand why they are short and sweet.

The next bit of celebratory stuff to gush over are the bond rings. Bond Rings are like basic Emblem Rings. These only give a few small stat boosts when equipped while a handful of S Rank rings come with skills. Acquiring these require summoning them through RNG and a special in game bond crystal currency which is fine, but what is cool about them is that every Emblem Ring has a set of 10 Bond Rings to collect, each with their original artwork for the character (or remake artwork) and have little descriptions about each character that unlock as you collect each rank of their rings. It is unfortunate that some characters selected seem to based solely off which ones had artwork available (looks over at Shadow Dragon not including Palla, Catria, and Est because Shadow Dragon/New Mystery does not have any artwork for them) but for the most part, these lists are organised in a way where important characters are top and bottom of the list and it's nice seeing little details like the Elincia S rank ring coming with her personal skill Mercy.

And the gushing of references to older titles doesn't stop there because each Emblem Ring gets their own Paralogue battle to allow for their Bond Rank to push past level 10. THESE ARE PEAK CARE AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL. Every single map comes from the characters original game. Lucina has Arena Ferox for example and talks about how she remembers fighting her father there, Ike has the defence map from Path of Radiance after he takes command of the Greil Mercenaries for the first time. These maps include remixed music from the original game, often a melody of several songs, like Marth's includes Trouble and Together We Ride, and they sound fantastic. The maps are also set up in such a way that it feels like you're playing something from the original game, like the Thracia one has its ballistae hit so much harder, or the Celica one includes enemies that can summon more enemies just like Gaiden/Echoes. Unfortunately there is limitations due to Engage's mechanics, so Micaiah's map lacks ledges that Radiant Dawn had and Sigurd's map is only a small portion of a full FE4 map but otherwise these are lovingly recreated, often including enemy units that reference characters from the original map and my gosh it is such a treat for fans like myself who have played every game in the series.

So yeah, Engage does a fantastic job at celebrating the series history but is also the 17th entry in the series and has its own original stuff to dive into as well. The story goes down the traditional Fire Emblem route of "evil dragon is awakening and must be stopped" which, while lacking the depth of something like Three Houses, I feel is fine for a title like this. It's simple, good fun and well voice acted with a handful of strong moments even if it fails to hit some of the heights of earlier titles. There's moments that seem to feel like reimaginings or references to older games. Like the start feels very Awakening, the bulk of it involving collecting the rings feels similar to Sacred Stones in a way, a lot of stuff surrounding Elusia's dynamics feel like a simpler Conquest arc, and Chapter 11 feels like it would fit right in with the Manster escape stuff from Thracia. By the end the story feels like a special crossover episode of something like Digimon or Power Rangers. There's a lot of talk of the power of bonds and stuff, and honestly it's something that's mostly just good fun rather than anything to analyse and take apart. Like it's just nice seeing all these Emblems together and I love how the final battle goes, it's something long time fans will really appreciate, and I think that's fine for a game like this.
Would've loved a bit more depth to the continent of Elyos itself but I did find a lot to love about Elusia at least to the point it's up there with some of my favourite Fire Emblem nations.

The new cast are a fantastic bunch too. Again, they're lacking the depth Three Houses brought but there's plenty to love about them from their supports and stuff. It feels like a more traditional FE in that sense as the story mostly focuses on the main royal from each nation and other characters pop up for their introduction and quickly fade out. Still, as I said there's plenty to love from Chloé and her love for folk food and fairy tales, or Hortensia and her persona she puts on in an attempt to be the princess she's expected to be and live up to her mother, or Ivy and Diamant whose kingdoms have been constantly at war learning how to forge a better relationship between their nations. There's a lot of good stuff here with the cast and it's great seeing them confide in the Emblems you give them and seeing those Emblems reminisce about their own lives. It was nice seeing Ike reflect on his days as a mercenary with Timerra or Byleth trying to guide Hortensia through her growth as a character.

Speaking of the new cast, I have a lot of love for the new protagonist Alear. It's hard to call them an "avatar character" because really all you're doing is picking a form and name for them, everything else is a fully fleshed character and I think how you view these kinds of characters going into the game can affect your perception and opinion of them. Alear is fantastic, they find the whole Divine One worshipping weird and awkward, are scared of the Corrupted and are very earnest in trying to be a good person. A lot of the late game story helps contextualise a lot of stuff surrounding Alear and it helps make them more endearing. The VA for the female Alear was a standout performer and helped sell the character to me even in moments where the story wasn't quite hitting what it was trying to convey.

There's a lot of new gameplay stuff in Engage too. The Somniel is like a reduced in scope Monastery but with just as many features. Visiting it between battles is entirely optional (thankfully handy for future playthroughs) and you'll probably want to visit it semi-regularly for the shops, stat boosts from meals and exercising, forming bond rings, and the arena. A lot of the other stuff is mostly just fun downtime stuff like fishing, changing costumes, and the wyvern ride minigame. It's small enough to make a little routine out of and speak to characters but I think Warriors: Three Hopes did it best with the base camp hub, that one felt like the Tellius camps brought to life and would be my preferred option in future titles.
Post battle you get to walk around the battlefield and talk to allies. These are nice for a little bit of world building, seeing stuff like Firene Castle in the background of an early Chapter is great for picturing how the nation is laid out in your head. I do wish the characters had more unique dialogue for these though, a lot of them say the same two or so lines. There's some maps like Chapter 17 where all the Firenese characters have unique lines about what happened and that is exactly what I wanted more of, just a little bit more depth for how these characters feel about what they're seeing.

Battle wise this is up there with the best of Fire Emblem. I've already mentioned the Engage mechanics and revival stones but there's other stuff to go through. Characters now have a type of sorts to their classes. For example Monks have a Chain Guard technique that allows them to take chip damage for allies one space around them. Some classes come with the Backup type that performs similarly to the attack pair ups from Awakening/Fates but in a much better in my opinion. Backup types can perform chain attacks when near an ally and rather act like a second full attack, a chain attack does smaller damage and at 80% accuracy so it's great for additional damage but not as substantial as the pair ups in Awakening/Fates. You can pull off a lot of damage if you line up your characters correctly, and my gosh how the enemies can punish you with it if you try to block off areas from them. The new break mechanic is also neat. Attacking with weapon triangle advantage now causes the opponent to drop their weapon for one phase of combat meaning they can't counterattack. It's a neat mechanic that isn't too intrusive and good for allowing disadvantaged weapons to get an attack in without fear of a counter.
Enemies in this game are also more aggressive than most FEs. Bosses in particular now will move and attack when in range or sometimes after a certain amount of turns. It's really good at keeping you on your toes, pushing you to be a bit more proactive in your strategy or risk being overwhelmed.
While objectives diversity is lacking (most maps are defeat boss objectives with one escape map and one sort of defence map) the more aggressive enemies can push you on the back foot, forcing you to hold your ground for a few turns before pushing out. The Ike paralogue in particular for me was a good example of feeling like a defence map without actually being one.
Fog of War has also been changed mechanically. Now you can't enter spaces you can't see in meaning you can't bump into unseen enemies while moving which is nice. FoW maps also include lighttable torches like the cave chapter in Radiant Dawn that can also be extinguished by the enemy. It helps make these maps feel a bit more dynamic and a bit less unpredictable.
Desert maps are another that have gone under a change. Instead of all desert tiles slowing your units to a crawl, now only certain tiles will slow you down so you can either push through the sand or take the long way round. It's another nice change that helps mitigate some of the frustrations these maps have caused in previous titles.
The maps themselves are also very well designed with no repeat maps showing up. There's a great visual variety between them as well which is really nice.

All of the mechanics and map design add up to one of the best Fire Emblem games from a gameplay standpoint. The game felt balanced throughout and I managed to complete my first playthrough without any grinding and without using any of the dlc emblems. Some of the Paralogues that opened up had higher recommended levels than the story ones at points and I challenged myself to push through them despite being underleveled and I found them to be very challenging but doable and fun.

Another thing I enjoyed was how limited things are in this game. Gold is tough to come by, units are weapon locked to two things max, skill points are hard to come by, deployment spaces are low for a lot of the game. I had to be careful with my money, plan what skills I wanted ahead of getting them, constantly switch up my characters as some fell off and new exciting ones appeared. It's working within these limitations that makes Fire Emblem so much fun for me and makes me excited for doing more playthroughs because I can experiment with different characters I didn't use and different ring combinations and that is so exciting.

Of course the music is fantastic as usual. Apart from the remixes from across the series, the new music is great with the Solm battle maps in particular being some of the catchiest themes ever. I don't think the final map music quite lives up to the extraordinary highs we've had since Awakening but nonetheless it's still a great one and one thematically fits this adventure very well.

Ultimately this was a fantastic experience. I think people who have played some of the previous games will get the most fun out of this as seeing the characters and references to the older games is really nice. The story does lack depth and has its flaws, like most FE titles, but the gameplay is up there with some of the best in the series.
I think the best way to sum this title up is: this is Fire Emblem heritage.

Tried playing this with a beta patch that I found but unfortunately the game crashed whenever the textbox would shake from a character expressing shock (and that happened a lot)
That said, I did beat the main story and had a great time with it. It's what you would expect from a quick follow up game: builds and improves upon the original in everyway.
V2 makes it kinda sound like "Version 2" rather than a full sequel but this is a proper sequel with it's own story taking place a year after the events of the first game and while you play as a new protagonist with a new group of friends, you'll bump into a few familiar faces from the first game along the way.
There's a huge post game to dig into after beating the story and multiplayer now supports 2V2 matches. Single player adds the ability to swap out your Robos main body now so you don't have to stick with Ray and there's a few new arenas to fight in as well as a bunch of returning ones.

Great follow up to the original game, hopefully a fully working English patch gets done some day

The second new generation of Pokemon on a console is usually the one that takes the series forward, is bold enough to experiment, and gives us more memorable characters and story beats and Scarlet/Violet delivers on all of these. Gen 9 has the ambition to take Pokemon into a fully open world for the first time after Legends Arceus experimented with open zones but is it a step too much for Game Freak to handle in their constant development cycles that sees them pump out new games every year?

Well the open world experience on offer here is fantastic. It works so well with Pokemon’s addictive core gameplay of catching and battling Pokemon that it’s so easy to spend hours hunting for Pokemon to add to your team, picking up the random items dotted all over the map. While the world itself looks uh not great, there is a good diversity of aesthetics on show, from grassy plains to snowy mountains, rocky caves to open seas, all fully of Pokemon shown in the overworld with no random encounters that you’ll find yourself being drawn to Pokemon you need for your dex and catching them. Unfortunately, none of the catching mechanics from PLA were brought forward here, it’s all the classic style of battling to weaken Pokemon and throwing balls through a menu. It’s a shame you can’t just lock onto Pokemon and throw a ball at them because that gameplay loop in PLA was so smooth and fast that it made catching Pokemon even more addictive. There is a lock on function here in Gen 9 but it’s limited to throwing your own Pokemon out to battle which sort of sums up my feelings with these games: two steps forward, one step back.

So, open world, you can go anywhere and do any task in any order. Gen 9 decides to give you 3 main objectives to set out upon: The gym challenge (standard Pokemon affair of defeating 8 gym leaders and earning badges to take on the Elite Four and Champion) The titans (defeating super sized Pokemon that are similar to Totem Pokemon from Gen 7 to earn Herba Mystica for your fancy Legendary Pokemon bike that essentially act as HMs like surf and rock climb) and defeating Team Star (kind of like the enemy team of the game but nowhere near as world ending threatening like your Magmas and Galactics)
And this is fantastic, it adds up to 18 challenges - one for every single Pokemon type to truly test your squads and you can do these in any order! That’s great right? Well unfortunately, the levels don’t scale for these challenges, so you could challenge something like the Ice gym, finding yourself up against Level 50ish Pokemon, training to overcome that challenge and finding that you’re incredibly overleveled for the rest of the game because none of these fights scale - the bug gym will always be around level 15 and the obvious place to start, so it’s like yeah, this is open world but there is still a set order to be doing things in based on levels and that’s a shame because this is such a great foundation for taking the series forward in areas where it has long stagnated.

Mechanically, there’s been a lot of convenience added to these games. All the stuff needed to build competitive teams, like bottle caps and items like flame orbs can be bought in stores for regular Pokemoney and that is another huge step forward in opening up the competitive aspect to more players. Breeding can now be done anywhere via setting up picnics. The new Tera Raids (replacing Dynamax raids from Gen 8) can be found all over the map instead of a dedicated area. Trainer battles are initiated by talking to a trainer rather than being seen by one. All little conveniences that add up to a much smoother experience for the player but then you’ve got the usual weird decisions…. Like why remove set mode? Why limit clothing to just four uniforms? Why not allow players to manipulate the time of day like Xenoblade does? It’s these little things that niggle away in the back of the mind, always reminding you, that yes, while this is a fantastic experience in so many regards, there are obvious places in which this experience could be closer to perfection.

The new gimmick of this gen is Tera Pokemon. Basically by pressing R in battle you can change your Pokemon into a crystalised version that can alter its typing if its tera type is different. For example, you could change your Electric type Pikachu into a Flying type, completely altering its weaknesses and resistances, flipping a matchup on its head. I genuinely think this is my favourite gimmick they’ve come up with but it’s woefully underutilised in the single player. Every gym leader has a Pokemon that doesn’t fit into their type (eg, the Grass gym has the Rock type Sudowoodo) and they change their Pokemon into the Tera type of that gym which means all they’ve done is switched a Pokemon’s weaknesses into a type you’ve already come prepared for. Imagine going up against the Grass gym and they terastallized their Grass type Pokemon into a Water type, completely resisting the Fire type you’ve probably brought to the gym. They could’ve been so unpredictable and truly shown off the potential of Terastalizing but unfortunately they picked the most predictable thing they could’ve done. Basically, a fantastic idea and one I can’t wait to see used in competitive fights, just not implemented well in single player fights.

The multiplayer component has been expanded upon here. You’ve got your usual battles, trades and raids but in addition now you can fully explore each other's worlds in a party of up to 4 players. There’s not much to do that’s actually dedicated to having multiple players, but you can all carry on with your own adventures while also having the company of your friends, seeing the same wild Pokemon and exploring together. It’s a nice addition and a welcome one. In fact, I’ve already seen people attempting to do Soul Link runs with having each other in the same world and that is such a cool thing that you can do now without having to do any unique modifications.

So storywise, once again the second new gen on a console steps things up and shows the potential Pokemon has at delivering something fun and engaging while also having memorable characters. Each of the three stories star a fantastic character, searching for their own treasure, whether it’s Nemona hoping to find a rival that can match her strength, or Arven, searching for the Herba Mystica to heal his dying Pokemon, the characters shine on a level up there with the likes of N in Gen 5 or Lillie in Gen 7. The culmination of all three story arcs is genuinely one of the best endgame stories done in Pokemon as you’re finally able to delve into Area Zero and discover the mysteries of the Paldea region and your fancy Legendary Pokemon bike. It’s incredible, it’s what I hoped that the Ultra Beasts story would’ve been like in Gen 7 and I’m happy to see Pokemon be ambitious with its story and characters again.

So yeah, with all this, despite a few niggles here and there, I would’ve put this game up there with Gens 2/5/7 as one of my favourite Pokemon experiences ever but now we come to the Donphan in the room…… The technical performance of the game. In all my years of playing Nintendo published games I have never played one that so brazenly does not hit the “Nintendo Seal of Quality” The performance of this game on a technical level is quite frankly embarrassing. There’s no excuse for a game that is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch and therefore BUILT WITH ITS LIMITATIONS IN MIND, to run like this. I am all for ambition, and to be fair to Pokemon, this open world does feature a good number of fully populated towns with no loading which must have been difficult to accomplish on Switch but…. Like it’s constantly stuttering, locking up at moment, background elements can run as low as 2fps, characters can pop in and out of existence, some wild tera Pokemon won’t load in despite the golden glow being there, there’s dev placeholder Pokeballs in some buildings and caves, the camera can clip through the ground during battles, sometimes catching Pokemon can cause the backgrounds to struggle to load and slow the game to a crawl, there’s areas where the framerate dips heavily like the lake and there’s just so much here that is obviously the cracks showing from the limited dev time Game Freak implements on itself. I can take a handful of issues and overlook them in isolation, like the framerate dips in the Master Sword area in Breath of the Wild, or the framerate dips in Erythia Sea in Xenoblade 3 - these are isolated events in ambitious and beautiful games that are pushing the Nintendo Switch to its limits. Pokemon on the other hand…. Looks nowhere near as good as these games and suffers these issues on a far more consistent basis that it’s impossible to overlook these flaws. When you’re playing a game where you are constantly aware that it could crash at any moment, then it detracts from the experience and that’s a shame because it’s obvious that Game Freak do care about what they’re making, they are listening to aspects and trying to take things forward but man, you can’t be pumping out games that need around 5 years development time in 3 years with half a team because the other half were working on your open zone experiment that released just 11 months earlier. I know this is a bit of a rant but I’m sorry, there’s a base level of functionality that should be getting hit and this falls way below that and it’s unacceptable, especially for something that is a juggernaut like Pokemon. These technical failings will come back to bite them eventually if they don’t do something about it and they are lucky that the core gameplay of Pokemon could carry them through this technical mess of a game.

So, Gen 9 every step forward the series has been needing in areas with a handful of steps back in others that, at its core is up there with series highs like Gen 5 but one ultimately held back an embarrassing technical performance that makes it hard to recommend on a general level because how much fun you will have with these games will come down to how much you are able deal with the issues you face while playing the game. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Paldea, I love the potential that open world Pokemon has but I am reaching my limit on how poor these games run and look compared to the rest of Nintendo’s offerings.

Sonic is back and this time it's with a brand new style of game that could be the perfect foundation for the future of 3D Sonic games.
Frontier approaches its game design with something they are calling "Open Zone" gameplay. The game is made up of multiple large and open areas, each full of items to collect, enemies to defeat, a fishing spot, story to uncover, and cyber space levels to beat. Everything you do in these open zone areas builds to collecting the 7 Chaos Emeralds to tackle an epic Titan fight before traversing to the next Zone and repeating the process. Watching the pre release trailers, I wasn't too sure about how much this would grip me as the tasks looked kinda boring but playing the game it's fantastic. There's always something grabbing your attention to keep you moving and yeah the tasks for expanding the map aren't the most exciting things ever but they're so quick to do that they're like fun bitsize challenges.

Now having these large areas are fine and all but how does Sonic control in such open environments? Well Sega have taken the opportunity to refine the boost style of Sonic to allow players even greater control. There's now options to adjust Sonic's speed, turning, control, etc to allow the widest range of players possible to find a style of Sonic they can learn how to play. On top of this Sega have finally learned not to shove everything on a single button. Jumping is one button while a separate button is used for homing attacks and even the returning lightspeed ring dash now requires a click on the left stick. What this means is that boost style Sonic has never controlled better and having such large areas to play about in allows you to get used to high speeds he can attain and get used to the way he'll flip of ramps and stuff.

Another big worry I had about this game was the combat slowing things down with enemies taking too long to beat but thankfully my fears were put to rest by the best combat in a Sonic game ever. It starts off a bit slow but with levelling up and learning skills, Sonic is soon dashing all over the place, spinning and kicking like a madman and taking down regular enemies with such fluid ease. Larger enemies act as boss fights and each come with such an epic scale to them and unique ways to defeating them. These fights are incredible as you see Sonic running up these colossal enemies and wailing at their weak points before eventually taking them down. Defeating these enemies gives you the gears required to get into the cyberspace levels.

Cyberspace is probably the weakest point of the game for me. These play like regular boost style 3D Sonic stages and they are a lot of fun but come with a couple of minor issues. They only use 4 level themes: Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, and a City style. It's clearly reused assets from Generations which I can forgive due to the amount of work they definitely needed to have put into the rest of the game. The other issue with them is that they are reused level layouts from older games, like Generations Green Hill and Chemical Plant which is a little frustrating after how much those have been used but on the other end of appeasing nostalgia, some of these levels are from Sonic Adventure 2, like Green Forest and Metal Harbor AND THAT IS SO COOL AFTER SO LONG. It's playing these levels that you can see how much progress Sega have made with how Sonic controls. Being able to chain homing attacks and lightspeed dashes with such ease and no risk of Sonic doing the wrong move is so nice. The levels are short and sweet and have 4 goals to achieve in each one so you'll be addicted to trying to get S ranks in every single one. Issues with reused stuff aside, I have not had so much fun in trying to get S rank in a Sonic game since Adventure 2 and I love that. There's a lot of potential here if Sega can get original style level designs and assets in play for the next game.

So yeah, these cyberspace levels grant you the keys required to unlock Chaos Emeralds and the end of each Zone sees Sonic take on a MASSIVE TITAN. The 7th Emerald is held by the Titan and each fight starts with regular Sonic attempting to climb up these massive things in order to grab the last emerald and become Super Sonic so the true fight can begin. AND THIS IS WHEN THE EPICNESS FLIES OFF THE SCALE!!! IN KICKS THE HEAVIEST BUTTROCK SONIC HAS EVER HAD AS SUPER SONIC CLASHES WITH THE TITAN. Super Sonic has to zip around dodging attacks and finding an opening to attack the Titan but my gosh, they have never captured the true flair of Super Sonic until this game. You can see how much fun Sonic is having in this form, the confidence he oozes because he knows he's invincible for a limited time, the strength he has as counters attacks and flings these giant Titans about the place. These are by far the best boss fights Sonic has ever had and I love them.

So yeah the bulk of the gameplay is excellent but how about that story? It's something that has taken a nosedive in quality since around Colours where everything was a little too lighthearted and juvenile while Forces went in the complete opposite direction and took things so far into edgy territory that it was hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Well Frontiers brings in Ian Flynn from the Archie Comics and my gosh IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE ANYONE HAS UNDERSTOOD THESE CHARACTERS TO THIS LEVEL. There is a perfect balance struck between seriousness and lightheartedness. Characters feel like they have their growth back, seeing the Sonic and Knuckles dynamic back to how it should be of friendly rivalry instead of Knuckles being an airhead. The attempt to tie together lore from the whole series, including the Mega Drive and Dreamcast era along with the recent games is incredible. Seeing references to stuff from Sonic 1/2/3, Adventure 1 and 2, Forces, Lost World and so much more, it's just like wow, they finally have someone who understands the series, who understands the characters, and who is capable of bringing everything together. And yeah, the new story stuff is cool too as we go on a journey to discover more about the Chaos Emeralds themselves as well as see some great emotional developments occur with characters like Eggman and his new AI character Sage. I won't spoil any specifics but if you're a long time fan of the series then you will love what they did with the story here.

There's one other neat thing to discuss about the game. They found a great way to bring Big back with a fishing minigame that is a fun way to break up the exploration gameplay.

As for technical performance, I chose to play this on Switch and yeah, it has its issues with pop in, very rough textures and areas that clearly scaled back a lot but I think they still managed to pull off a largely enjoyable experience if Switch is your only console. The framerate sticks around 30fps and there's definitely a lot worse I have played on the Switch in a technical sense. I would highly recommend getting the game on PS5 or Series X as it looks so much better there, has 60fps as an option and yeah while there is still some pop in issues, I think that was always gonna be an issue with how fast Sonic moves in these kinds of environments. I appreciate the ambition even if the technology couldn't quite keep up.

So yeah, that's Sonic Frontiers. An excellent first step into a new direction for the blue hedgehog and one I hope Sega takes the time to build off because there is a fantastic foundation there for the future of 3D Sonic games. It's so nice seeing Sega's ambition with the series return and it actually nailing most aspects on the first attempt. The future is bright Sonic fans!

This was something I started on PS4 around early 2018 before Persona fixation took over and I dropped. There was then plans to play it in 2020 alongside someone but they went ahead and played it without me so this was finally the perfect opportunity to cut myself free from some ties to my past and experience the game for myself.

Having played some of the PS4 version, I have to say this is one of the more impressive Switch ports I've played. It hits a mostly consistent 30fps and while there are noticeable scalebacks like the texture quality and geometry of some objects, it still manages to maintain the look and feel of NieR with few hiccups.

As for the game itself, Platinum did an excellent job with their brand of action game for fighting, with on foot battles being smooth, kinetic, and flashy while the mech sections offer some great shoot em up gameplay with some spectacular boss fights.

There's a lot of neat stuff that makes use of you playing as an android, with you able to equip and unequip chips to adjust the UI with information you want as well as the usual stat and healing buffs.

The game has a bunch of different endings, with 5 main ones broken up into 3 main routes. The first and third routes are great and while I can appreciate what they were going for in the second route, it is a little repetitive coming straight after the first route. Still, while the idea isn't executed perfectly, it is still a neat one.

The story is very good, taking you to a post apocalyptic Earth as androids fight for humans and robots fight for alien invaders and as you slowly uncover the mysteries of the game, you'll find yourself getting attached to characters like 2B, 9S, and Pascal.
And having played Xenoblade 3 recently, Ending E definitely made me go oh..... I see what I have become here.... Which is really neat and further strengthens the narrative of the two games.

NieR: Automata is a fantastic game with a strong narrative and one that was worthy of the praise it soaked up on its original launch. The Switch port is of a high enough standard where I feel comfortable recommending this version if Switch is your platform of choice.
I am glad I finally found the opportunity to play this game and I am happy that it lived up to its expectations.

The third entry in the Splatoon series and yeah it's more of the same and you know what? That's ok. Especially for a series that is just over 7 years old. The time will come when it will need to reinvent itself but for now a few tweaks here and there along with another banging story mode is enough to elevate this to the best Splatoon game.

Multiplayer is still as great as ever with Turf War still being addictive, the more competitive modes like Tower Control and Rainmaker offering challenging and engaging battles while Salmon Run is now open 24/7 from the get go. I'm not super deep into the competitive side of things and bounced off Splatoon 2 early so I can't really tell you all the tweaks they've made to existing weapons and stuff but the new weapons like the bow are cool and multiplayer matches are still as fun as ever and that's all you really need for this type of game. I do wish the stages in circulation every two hours was bumped up to three stages instead of two but oh well.
I still have one major gripe with the controls and that's gyro aiming STILL LOCKS THE RIGHT CONTROL STICK TO LEFT/RIGHT ONLY. That's not how I use gyro controls and that's now how it works in literally every other Nintendo game. I like having full stick movement PLUS gyro aiming so I have full control of the camera at all times and can adjust my aim quickly. I dunno why that's still a thing 3 games in.

Anyways, as someone who isn't great at shooters, the story mode is the main draw for me here and I am grateful this is where they freshened things up most. It borrows a similar level design structure to what the Octo Expansion DLC had in Splatoon 2 where levels are mostly challenges to text your skills with a variety of weapons and you learn and develop as you go. Completing every level unlocks a full page of the crazy Splatoon lore to read while bosses are something a little different from the Octolings we saw in the previous games. It all culminates in one of the most "holy shit what are they smoking over there?" final bosses I've ever seen. Even after all that the devs took a little inspiration from the recent 3D Mario games gauntlet style levels for a post game level that will truly test everything you've learned. It's a fantastic single player experience and something that the Splatoon team keep bettering every game.

There's other tweaks here and there throughout the game like making your own tag, decorating your own locker and a full blown card game for those that want something a little different.

Yes it's more of the same, but when it's something that was already so good and made even better, does that really matter? Splatoon 3 is another fantastic entry in the series and one that still feels pretty fresh

At its core Soul Hackers 2 is a distinctly mid budget JRPG title and it comes with all the benefits and flaws you would expect from that.

Starting with the flaws, the only one that really bothered me was its dungeon design. Only the final one really vibed with me aesthetically and they all feature very corridory like design where it's easy to imagine it being like an old school first person dungeon. Unfortunately I'm not big on those kind of dungeons but I did appreciate the puzzle aspects (though the warp panel hell in the later Soul Matrix areas definitely tested my patience) I don't think these dungeons are outright bad, just not my preference in terms of design.

Onto the positives and once again, Atlus knocks it out of the park with art direction and character designs. The menus look great with a purple colour scheme and triangular digital matrix style designs all over. Ringo is such a standout character design with a bold yellow colour scheme and the digital triangles on her jacket. The digital aesthetic tickles my brainworms in all the right ways, with low health enemies having digital green patches show up on them, like it appeals to my tastes in such a good way.

The characters themselves are probably the strongest point. It's rare to have a female protagonist, who speaks, in an adult cast in Atlus games so a lot of this is like a breath of fresh air. Almost like the team were allowed to experiment freely because of the smaller nature of the title and it paid off well. Seeing characters blow off steam at a bar after a mission, struggle with a broken relationship, struggle long time friends taking different paths in their life, it all makes for such a nice change from the usual teenagers in high school stuff we usually get. Like it's just nice seeing a group of characters head back to a run down apartment and chill out with take out meals.
The main party is also just a set 4 characters plus one on dungeon navigation so the game also has a chance to allow all these characters to grow together, struggle together, and support each other without the game having to be like "oh hey, here's a new party member, we gotta focus on introducing them and forget everyone else!" It's nice to have new faces freshen up your party sure, but there is something to appreciate with a fixed party approach too.

The other main benefit of being mid budget means there is no room for excess fluff. The main story runs around 30-40 hours, doesn't waste time with filler, lets you choose to explore additional character depth with hangout events and the Soul Matrix dungeon, and it all flows really nicely. It's just really nice having a JRPG that's just tightly focused on its main story and doesn't end up eating 100s of hours of your life. I can appreciate those super long JRPGs sure but it's nice to have a balance of shorter classics too.

Soul Hackers 2 is a fantastic way to explore an old series and see if it can grow with a new audience. It nails so much with its story, its characters, and aesthetic while falling a little short in dungeon design. I love that Atlus is using the success of the Persona series to take an opportunity to explore some of their back catalogue and revive some series and I can only hope they continue to do so