Some games are easy to review, allowing you to express your thoughts clearly about what you love or dislike. You can easily sum up your experience and share what aspects of the game evoke specific feelings.

However, there are games that go beyond the usual gaming experience and present a unique challenge when it comes to reviewing. Final Fantasy VII falls into that category for me. In my childhood, this game shifted me from a casual video game enthusiast to someone passionate about JRPGs, a fondness that has stuck with me over the years. While I wouldn't claim it changed my life, it certainly influenced how I perceive entertainment and shaped my preferences for media to unwind and disconnect from the 'real world.'

This recent playthrough is my fifth complete run, and I chose the original PSX version, flaws and all. We all know about the subpar translation, filled with spelling errors and plot deviations. While I revisited the original on my Steamdeck, my partner played a heavily modded PC version, featuring the Echo-S fan voice acting—an impressive fan creation that deserves recognition. This fan work resulted in some amusing scenes, perhaps not present in the original but strangely fitting into the narrative.

Despite the contrast in experiences, with his being fresh and mine ancient, we both found aspects to enjoy and criticize passionately. Despite its imperfections, I believe Final Fantasy VII is a genuinely great game, though not without its flaws—achieving perfection is a rare feat in gaming. Its lasting impact on the gaming industry over decades is undeniable. The game captures the essence of what makes JRPGs enjoyable, displaying the power of storytelling with well-developed characters and intricately crafted worlds filled with lore. Final Fantasy's dedication to innovation is evident, and VII stands as a title that embodies that commitment.

"There ain't no getting off of this train we're on."

When I think of the Steamdeck, a game like Nobody Saves the World should always come to mind. This is an absolute gem of a 15hr dungeon crawler/action RPG that doesn't take itself serious, both in its story and its gameplay.

It's great that we have complex ARPG titles like Path of Exile, but it's also heart warming that we have easy to understand systems like the ones found in NStW. No armor, no items, no weapons. Just skills and talents. EXP? Get it through questing and using your skills and talents in certain ways! Such a simple idea, but the execution is perfection.

I'd put this on a must play list for fans of the genre, or anyone looking for their next pickup and go game on the device of their choice.

Playing this game in 2024 is so wild, especially because I remember loving this title as a kid. Its early on dual-thumbstick FPS gameplay really shows, and you can see how they were still trying to figure it out. But man some of these missions are wonderful.

Hands down one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, and that alone makes it worth a play!

But be warned - whoever developed the weapons in this one clearly have never used a shotgun or an mp40, because these are the worst instances of either in gaming over the last two decades.

blahblahblah MAGIC!

You know what this game needed? More Hootle. More freaking Hootle and Law, fighting for the love of their lives, to the bitter end.

Seriously though, I went into this game completely blind and came out in love with the cast of characters. Having not touched a Tales game in nearly a decade (besides a replay of Symphonia) I had forgotten the masterclass of character growth and banter these games are rightfully known for. Top notch voice talent helped to push it even further.

The combat is crisp, responsive, and so damn pretty that sometimes I even forgot that some of these enemies (and not just bosses) have way more HP than they have any right to. The combo abilities between party members never got old, even after the literal thousandth time (1,157 to be exact!). This element of battle was hands down my favorite.

The story has some high peaks but also some low valleys. There was a point maybe 2/3rds of the way in that started to feel like a visual novel, and I was losing the plot for a bit there. With the budgets that modern games have you don’t often see what we were used to years ago: a strong (aka fully budgeted) opening and mid game only to be let down by a massively under budgeted and rushed final act. I don’t think Arise suffered from that symptom, but I still felt some pacing issues. Arise still does a great job branching out from the ‘small people problems’ into ‘whoa big world crisis problems’ and I enjoyed that immensely.

The difficulty was a bit of a roller coaster ride as well, but I appreciate that you can change the difficulty on the fly and actually benefit from playing it a bit harder. I think I played 70% of the game on hard, but for some bosses I knocked it down (Ooze Hive I hope you rot in hell you add spawning bastard!). At other points I did that for the dungeon, just because some of these normal mobs have too much HP and never really felt in danger, so they were just sponges for damage.

Oh! And the music! Wow, I admit I’ve never been a huge fan of Motoi Sakuraba, but this is by far one of my favorite soundtracks they’ve worked on. The different areas, being very distinctive in the game, also featured very distinct music, and each piece fit the theme for the zone. The battle music never got old, no matter how many times I heard it, and the ex dungeon battle and boss music? Perfection!

This is also the first Tales game I’ve ‘100%’ and I’m glad I did! There are things the devs did here to respect the players time that I wish other game companies, especially in the JRPG space, would take note of. Finishing the game at around lvl58 I thought I’d be grinding for hours to reach max level, but the ex dungeon had other thoughts. First boss down, the game asked me if 3 levels was enough? Oh, not quite huh? Well can’t please everyone, so the next handful were advancing me 4-5 levels at a time. And the ex dungeon featured one of the hardest boss fights I’ve experienced in an action JRPG, to the point my fingers were a bit achy after the 12 minute slog. Well worth the experience.

I cannot wait to see where Bamco goes next with the series, and think I might take a deep dive into the many Tales games I’ve skipped over the years.

And, please, for my fanservice needs, can we get a spin off with just Law, Rinwell and Hootle? Tales of Arise: Three’s Company. Please!

I will be upfront and say I played on Hard (didn't know there was a higher difficulty hidden away until after) so some of my thoughts might be skewed because of that.

The gameplay and combat felt fresh but turned sour and stale very quickly. I understand it's a throwback to shooters of old, but that shouldn't mean it has to play exactly like them. Many encounters I found myself either holding the S key while firing away or just circle strafing and chipping away at the monster's health.

There was a chance missed here to use the colors inherent in both the enemies and the weapons to inflict extra (or less) damage based on those 'elements.' Instead it felt often like 'use whatever weapon you have the most mana (ammo) for,' which never felt that great. I'm sure there is targeted limb/head damage but it truly didn't feel like it made much of a difference.

Am glad I stuck it out though as some of the later levels have such neat platforming segments and honestly some very cool boss fights. The final boss alone was very well done.

With so many more 'boomer shooters' in my steam library I'm going to dive into them and see if it's this game that's a one-off or if the genre maybe just isn't my cup of tea.

Considering this was a $70 title only a few months ago, I was surprised to see it for $8.99. After spending 20 hours with the game, I understand why and I think even at that price it's still not worth it. Buy a nice latte instead.

Playing on Xbox Series X the game is ripe with performance issues and let downs. Immortals is striving so hard to give you Doom-esque combat but when the framerate is dipping and diving all over the place in a frantic battle, it just doesn't work. I wish my gaming PC was newer to try it, because perhaps the experience would have been better.

"Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off." - Coco Chanel - It's a combat system that just has too much and, at least on a controller, often leads to fumbling in battle. Three main weapons, three off weapons, six magic spells, melee, jump, double jump, hover, dash, sprint, and a grappling hook.... it's just a bit much, and I'd say about 20-30% of these are bland and lackluster. The spell parry ability was a standout favorite though, I really liked that.

Enjoyable characters and great voice acting was likely the only reason I completed this one. I wanted to like the story and the lore more, but it felt bland and uninspiring. As the player I really did not care one way or another how things turned out.

Rook for MVP.

shishishi

This one really does everything right, from story, world building, gameplay and combat. The music hits all the right notes, playing on nostalgia while still giving something fresh. The characters are genuine and their interactions help to fully flesh out the story.

Really cannot recommended this strongly enough for fans of the genre. Being able to play Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars in the same year has reignited not just my love of JRPGs but also kindled a true interest in indie games, something I historically have mostly ignored for the flashy big titles.

This is a hard one to review, having only played it for the first time in 2023. One has to be able to go back to 2008 to have a true appreciation of this game, I think, because when compared to modern FPS campaigns, this hugely falls flat.

But was that true in '08? Likely not. A (mainly) multiplayer franchise breaking out with an actually narrative focused story was a big step for the studio, and so many of the shooters in that time period either picked big-budget story campaigns or extensive multiplayer options. BF: Bad Company attempted to do both, and succeeded marginally I feel.

The story is, though comical and likely a play on a film or literature about a similar tale, enjoyable: because of the characters. It has some truly humorous moments made the better for the squad and their interactions with one another.

The gameplay leaves room for improvement, to say the least. Hard mode was likely a poor choice on my part, but I don't think that toning down the difficulty would have increased the overall enjoyment. I was glad for a respawn system vs checkpoints, but still found it a monotonous task to whittle down the enemy slowly to be able to advance through certain portions. Combined with 20 year old console FPS controls, this made for a bit of frustrating moments, to say the least.

Still, I'd say give this a try if you have not experienced it before. Clocking in at just shy of 10 hrs it's a good weekend getaway back to 2008.