AdoMobA

Pros - spiritual successor to FF3 and FF5 job system - amazing story with compelling characters and voice acting - the character builds feel so fun to come up with and execute - the access to both the original version and the remaster is fantastic and should be industry standard // Cons - anytime I needed to equip Safeguard, the battle was more annoying than difficult // Final Fantasy Tactics is a game I heard a lot of praise for, so my expectations were super high. When I finally got to experience it, it blew all those expectations out the water. First of all, the job system lineage of FF3 to FF5 to FFT is so obvious it's almost funny. When FF3 introduced the idea, FF5 refined it and FFT mastered it. This is the best iteration of the job system from the original games. I absolutely adore coming up with my own builds and then seeing them crush and circumvent tough battles. The gameplay is genuinely without a flaw (besides the necessity for Safeguard in some fights). Where FFT completely leaps over its two predecessors is in its story. Ramza is an amazingly compelling character and watching his journey through the land of Ivalice is so captivating. From a naive noble upstart to an upstanding honorable hero I loved Ramza as a character. What a fun ride. What is also amazing is that you get two versions of this game with a single purchase. The original 1997 game and the Ivalice Chronicles remaster. More remakes and remasters should do this. This should be an industry standard. So you should play this game? Hell yes. 100%. Both the gameplay and story will entertain you for hours.

Pros - the story is beyond captivating with stellar performances - this game has an enormous amount of side content - the gameplay and customization are simple to grasp yet quite deep - the OST is heavenly // Cons - only nitpicks, like missing the ability to sort Pictos by unmastered or recently acquired and the platforming being kinda wonky // How is this the first game for Sandfall? Just how? Easily lapping the triple A industry with such a gem ****, beating them on gameplay, story and music. Mental. I don't have gripes, just nitpicks. Crazy for a game I spent nearly sixty hours playing. No performance issues, no gameplay issues, no voice acting issues, just straight gas. What should be a standard for the triple A market Clair Obscur absolutely exceeds. The story and characters first. Not since Cyberpunk 2077 was I captivated by cutscenes and characters just talking. Stellar performances by everyone, the characters are all fantastic and lovable. The story hits a gorgeous yet sad melancholy that persists throughout the runtime yet always feels gripping and appropriate. Just bravo. The gameplay does not play second fiddle to the story, it in fact stands proud next to it. Taking a turn based system and adding timing based dodges, parries and QTEs to your own attacks, it keeps itself interesting to the very end. The pictos/lumina system feels a little overwhelming in the beginning but becomes second nature almost instantly. The build variety for everyone is crazy. Lune was my main damage over time mage then a healer and finally ended up as a burst damage mage. So much fun to mess around. And the music. Just chefs kiss. The amount of putting your controller down and just experiencing the OST moments is crazy in this game. Not a single bad or even mediocre track on the entire soundtrack is a wild thing to see. I love this game. It soundly blew away my expectations and left me sad and wanting for more. Just stellar work.

Pros - press turn system is still GOATED - I love the whole cast of characters - the best Atlus villain - the Archetype inheritance system is a joy to customize // Cons - Atlus has the consistent need to lock away super bosses behind NG+ which is annoying // As a new IP for Atlus, Metaphor is such an amazing success. Rounding out the Persona and SMT roster, Metaphor takes a stab at a fantasy inspired story and it is a joy to experience. The story revolving around a popularity contest for the throne is a genius way to drive forward the plot and get you invested right away. Every step of the journey brings quite a significant amount of tension and that is thanks to the fantastic main villain, Luis. Without a doubt, the best antagonist Atlus has done in the last ten years. Mainly because he has very consistent goals, remains charming in the most insidious way and mainly, he remains as the main villain to the very end. No sudden twist, no sudden: It was actually this random god all along. He is the main villain and he stays the main villain. The rest of the cast is equally fantastic. Strohl is by far one of the best bro characters, Hulkenberg is hilarious, Heismey made me really sad and happy and so on. Even the supporting characters manage to ALL be interesting and fun. This is the first Atlus game where I wouldn't have cut a single character or even a single bonding event. Brilliant. As for the gameplay, I will repeat myself. Atlus still got the best turn based system on lock. The twist this time are the Archetypes. A vehicles for skills, that got the ability to inherit skills off of other archetypes. So for example, a Strohl mastering a Mage archetype, can then add magic skills onto his Warrior archetype. If you let Heismey master Faker, you can add debufs onto his Thief atchetype. Wanna make Hulkenberg a tank who can heal, or Eupha a healer who can hit hard with physical skills. The option is there. So much fun. In conclusion, Atlus knocked it out of the park with their new IP. Even though I wish they left some of their design decisions in the past (NG+ Super Bosses), that wouldn't ruin this game for me. Absolute peak.

Pros - a really fun melee action game - crazy build variety - the best enemy and boss variety of these kinds of games - best duo bosses // Cons - the lacking crafting mats make some of the armor pieces viable only on NG+ and further (to craft the full Bull King set you have to go all the way to Chapter 5 of NG+) // It is rare that a game lives up to its first trailer hype. Black Myth: Wukong easily lived up and in some ways, was even better than anyone could hope. The combat is so much fun. Light attack combos, building resources to spend on heavy attack finishers or varied combos. Magic skills that make some encounters a complete breeze. Summons and transformations that add extra passive and active skills. On top of all of that, the healing system consists of three different components (gourds, drinks and soaks). Character builds are varied in the best way, emphasizing different stances, finishers, even magic skills. The fact that a build where every time you heal you poison yourself is not just possible, but a viable way to play the game is so amazing. Then the enemies. Out of all of the Souls inspired games, the enemy variety is so far above anything in this genre. They look different, play different, require different strats. From the tiniest spiders to the largest giants this game has some of the most fun enemies in recent memory. Oh also, the way this game does duo bosses should be how this genre moves forward. Tagging each other in and not relying on cheaply overwhelming you… just chefs kiss. In conclusion, I love to see a company not just meet player expectations, but heavily exceed them. Fun game, great time, just increase the amount of crafting mats per run and it will easily be even better.

Pros - fun action, especially in coop - good variety of guns - the story is cheesy action movie stuff that I enjoy // Cons - the companion AI goes from bad to passable, but is never good - the fact that you can farm ammo and health items takes the survival element out of Resident Evil - the dialogue loses its RE4 goofiness and thus is kinda bland - most of the game taking place in sunlit areas takes the horror out completely - Desperate Escape DLC highlights the worst action parts of this game // Strangely, Resident Evil 5 is a game I have way more problems with when I think about it, but I absolutely enjoy it when I'm playing it. From the plethora of QTEs, early 2010 yellow action filter and the companion AI, this game is a lot of fun with a couple of hiccups. Following in the steps of RE4 this game drops the horror for more action and stress focused encounters with a lot of enemies coming from every direction. The action it pulls off is good, especially if you have a coop partner. However, the horror part of this game is just non-existent. Sunlit areas, turret sections, car chases, the ability to farm ammo and health items. Farming items. That is just not Resident Evil in my opinion. Yet once again, the game is quite enjoyable with its weapon variety that helps you through the action. Lastly, AI. Specifically the companion AI. If you manage it right it is passable. Picking up items, killing enemies and not getting in your way. Sooner than later however, there will come a time where the AI decides to be so stupid it will baffle you how it was ever shipped in that state. Horrible pathing, walking into insta-kill enemies, wasting time coming to you so you can leave and thus you get hit. Clearly they thought most people will play coop so they ignored the quality of the AI companion. All in all, I still enjoyed RE5 more than I didn't. While it is not my preferred style of Resident Evil, playing it with a homie, we enjoyed our time.

Pros - quite a lot of outcomes for the story - great villain - all the playable characters have quite interesting sections // Cons - bad controls (Hold R2 to walk is just weird) - the voice acting (especially the kids) feels wooden - more directed experience than a game Heavy Rain is a classic with a fun story but terrible gameplay. However, I genuinely think this is one of those times where the story is good enough to excuse some of the weaker parts. The setup, the characters and the different challenges given by the Origami Killer are all quite fun and exciting. Madison and her clutch investigation comes super handy. Norman and his investigation serve some pretty cool ideas. And good old Scott meets some of the better side characters. And all the outcomes are quite appropriate. What doesn't hold up is the gameplay. Put the square in the square hole type stuff with contextual items. The holding R2 to walk will always feel weird to me. The game tries its hardest with controller flicking but it still is a little silly. Overall, if you are in for a game, play something else. If you are in for a guided experience of one of the more known video game stories you are in for a fun ride.

Pros - og characters return - interesting story - the ship is a really cool horror environment - mix of old and new enemies leads to some pretty fun encounters // Cons - the Keith and Quint sections break up the horror theme with eyeroll comedy sections - the level design makes it less replayable than all the other RE games I've played - no substantial puzzles // Revelations is a solid entry in the Resident Evil franchise. However certain things, like the underwater welding, the fingerprint locks and the electric locks, truly feel gutted without the functionality of the 3DS. Positives? Story and characters. I love the return of the og duo and most of the newly introduced characters. The story of the ship and T-Abyss virus is fantastic, offering some great twists and turns. The ship itself is a gorgeous environment tailor made for more of the horror aspects these games offer. From the dingy entry point, through the crew cabins to the luxurious diner, hall and casino it's a horror theme fiesta. My two biggest gripes are the level design and certain game sections. Whenever it is a Keith and Quint section, the game is meh. Every other time, fantastic. As for level design, I just wish it was more interconnected like the Spencer Mansion or the Re2 Police station. Overall fun little game that took me seven hours to beat. I really enjoyed some parts and was meh on others. Get it on sale.

Pros - one of the best third-person combat systems in gaming - fun movement options - skills and tools make a huge impact - really fun bosses // Cons - the Headless bosses use a cheap tactic of restricting your movement Sekiro was such a surprising game when it came out and it still holds up to this day. This game being a side project for FromSoftware is a hilarious condemnation of most other developers. Let's start with combat. Unlike its brothers and sisters, Souls and Bloodborne, Sekiro takes a parry first, doge sparingly approach. This results in some of the most fun dueling From has ever created. It's fast, it's fun and feels so rewarding once that part clicks for you. Next is the tools and skills. The ninja tools straight up break certain encounters. Oil + Flame Vent against Drunks and the Chained Ogre. Axe vs Seven Ashina Spears and Lone Shadow. Sabimaru vs O'Rin and the Snake Eyes. This game doesn't mind you dominating encounters through these means. And since I mentioned some of them already, let's talk about bosses. All in all, one of the best collections of boss encounters FromSoft has ever produced. Both Gyoubu and the Guardian Ape are so iconic, people who never played this game heard of them. The Divine Dragon is still the best gimmick fight From has ever made. Owl is so much fun. Genichiro being the skill check and also a way for the player to see how far they came skill wise is so good. And finally Isshin is still the most fun fight I have experienced. Both versions btw. Sekiro is just such a must play for any FromSoftware fans and for anyone that enjoys these challenging third person melee games. Just a thrill ride from start to finish. I can't recommend this enough.

Pros - the game looks gorgeous - the controls feel easy to understand yet are still quite complex - the feel of sitting in a cockpit is unmatched - even better in VR - the ship and loadout variety leads to some pretty fun customization // Cons - the MP portion is mostly dead (2026) and the two matches a day you find is full of meta-slave sweats What a ride this game is. When it comes to Star Wars flight simulators no game does it better than Squadrons. The ship variety and loadout variety feels so fun. Off rip, this game looks so gorgeous. From the cockpit design to the battlefields littered with debris you have to strafe around this game does not miss. One of the rare examples where VR is not a gimmick and actually enhances the experience. I have never felt so fully immersed in a flight sim in my life. So good. Then there is the gameplay. It's so good that Republic ships have four different modes where you prioritize speed, guns, shields or balanced and feel so different from Empire ships that have no shields and instead you focus speed or guns with balanced being an option. The different turret and missile attachments made me actually look for my favorites and made the later battles so much fun. The amount of options in which you can command your squadron and even play support ships is beyond cool and I wish I played back when the multiplayer was worth engaging with. Because as of February 2026 the multiplayer I experienced was awful. Long, long, long, long queue times and meta-slave sweats made me give up after two days of getting five total matches and all of them feeling the same since everyone who still plays has everything unlocked. That being said, depending on what you buy this for and at what price this game highly varies in quality. If you buy it for the single player without VR support it's an 8. With VR (which is how I experienced it) the single player is a 9. With or without VR the multiplayer experience is like a 2. So know what you are buying this for and you will have a good time.

Pros - fun combat system - story remains interesting until the very end - good build variety for demons // Cons - Chapter 7 feels like an odd duck that is not connected to anything in the game story wise - some of the dungeons rely on mechanics that are more of a nuisance than a challenge So could the cool demons/personas that work so well in a turn based combat setting actually translate well to an action combat setting. Yep, most definitely. Instead of the normal Atlus press turn system, Raidou instead adapts simple combat of light (resource recovery) and heavy (damage) attacks. Well timed dodges trigger devastating counters and the simple three abilities you equip to actively use range from devastating attacks to buffs and some damage immunities. Simple yet so fun and effective. The story centers around a mystery **** from a rich family who is haunted by a demon. It takes some wild turns and remains engaging and fun until the very end, besides chapter 7 that just feels so isolated from everything else. Having the passive and active abilities separate on demons leads to a massive amount of build variety. All together, demons can have up to 8 active and 6 passive abilities that you can fuse onto them. Fusing is therefore so much fun, allowing for some actual skill expression in just setting up these demons. Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot and my gripes with it are very minor. I can safely recommend this to any fan of the Atlus turn based games as an interesting deviation on the regular formula.

Pros - true classic games brought to modern consoles - fantastic combat system - iconic levels - Cons - Aspyr remake which means it messes up the greatness of the originals with technical issues // When it comes to Star Wars games there are very few that match the level of prestige of the Jedi Academy/Outcast. While I love Jedi Academy, Outcast still remains unfinished. Jedi Academy has one of the most innovative combat systems for its era. Directional slashes and stabs in three different lightsaber forms plus dual wield and double-bladed movesets put a lot of modern games to shame. The force powers are a fantastic (and often overpowered) spice to the combat, making some of the most satisfying gameplay. And the story is pretty solid while not breaking the mold on the classic Star Wars tropes. Outcast is a game I tried to love, yet I just can't. I can see all the building blocks that would eventually build into my beloved Jedi Academy. The issue is I find Outcast aggravating to play. The furthest I made it was mission 14 before the game annoyed me to a point where I just stopped caring to finish it. Force powers being assigned randomly is one thing. Lots and lots of sniper enemies in extravagantly aggravating spots is another. Difficult to see buttons that you need to press to progress. The fact that Aspyr didn't bother to address the slippery platforming. I just can't bring myself to finish Outcast. Overall Academy is solid because it is the original game I love. I couldn't bring myself to love Outcast despite understanding why others might love this game. Aspyr being as sloppy as they could afford without getting sued. I don't recommend this collection to anybody. Play the original PC releases.

Pros - press turn is stil goated - the Miracle/Essence customization is incredibly simple and effective - fun exploration - the two different routes are both plenty interesting in their own right - characters kept me guessing on the who is the Law and Chaos rep until revealed // Cons - the characters themselves feel a little flimsy, they don't get a lot of screentime - platinuming this game made me hate the Temple of Eternity because the spawning enemies get annoying to avoid in subsequent playthroughs SMT V was a part of the 2024 Atlus release schedule that I was least interested in. And boy was I a fool because Vengeance is an incredibly fun game. For starters, this game does exploration correctly. Always stuff to find that increases your power and resources that are actually useful. The miman hunting and essence collecting never got boring. Essences are a big part of why I found this game so fun. Choices are the at all time high, allowing you to transfer demon skills and affinities on the main character or just the skills on the demons. Topple it off with Miracles and you have a robust system of levers to pull you can use to overcome anything in the game. The press turn system is just as great as ever, the unique part being the magatsuhi gauge. Sort of an ultimate that depending on the demon can range from a buff, attack to a heal. However 99 out of a 100 times you are better off using Omatogi Critical. The story being split between two routes is also a lot of fun. Both the Cannon of Vengeance and Cannon of Creation have their plusses and minuses, though I feel like characters that are way more relevant to the endings get better development on the Cannon of Vengeance. Overall, I really liked this game and think it is a must play for any fans of modern JRPGs.

Pros - fun characters - the game plays smooth, almost no loading screens // Cons - the story falls appart in the end - Sabbaths are way less flexible than Press Turn and One More - the Soul Matrix is 50% of gameplay and it is visually so visually boring and it relies on teleport mazes // Not good, not bad. Bog standard. That is how I would describe this game. It takes arguably the biggest strength Atlus has and squanders it. Add to that the borefest of the Soul Matrix and you have a whole bunch of good ideas and bad executions. So lets start with combat. Sabbaths are an interesting idea on the whole exploit weakness to get something system that Atlus has going on. It is not an inherently bad idea, it is just way less interesting than all the other Atlus games I have played. Both Press Turn and One More get you an extra turn which you can use for more damage, buffs, heals, items etc. Sabbaths are just extra damage. Then the story. It starts really well. Interesting world. Fun characters. The plot is exciting with the reveals. But the instant it focuses on the covenants about half way through the game it just falls apart. The covenants are this amorphous thing that can do it all while not doing much. Bunch of macguffins that are way less interesting than they should be. The ending takes such a weird left turn for one of the characters that gets the most setup in a DLC side conversation. The fall off is so bad. And then there is the Soul Matrix. Ignoring that the main game has 2 Subway Line, 2 Shipping District dungeons, the Soul Matrix **** them all. It is so visually boring. Fifteen floors (5 per character) of the same blue color, same music, same side quests etc. And what's even worse is that the final three floors for every character rely on teleport mazes. Special callout for Seizo's third floor. What a mess. Saying all that, Soul Hackers is not a bad game. It plays quite well. The demon fusion is as fun as ever and coming up with broken builds feels just as good as any other Atlus game. Playing it on PS5 the game loads instantly. And the hangout events at the bar made me genuinely love the main cast. Soul Hackers 2 is the weakest Atlus release I have played but it is still a solid time. Like I said. Not good, not bad. Just average.

Pros - solid character writing - the game plays very smoothly without needing 1000 mods and fixes to get it running - ACT 1 and 2 are very strong on their story and themes // Cons - horrible DLC practices - wave combat gets old halfway through ACT 1 and then it gets downright annoying - unendingly repetitive areas - the final ''choice'' and the two bossfights it leads to is one of the most pathetic non-choices in videogames // The biggest issue Dragon Age 2 faces is the lack of time it was given in the kitchen. Released only a year and four months after Origins, the game suffers from clear shortcuts like reusing maps and wave combat against uninteresting enemies and the ACT 3 final choice. The biggest one you've heard is reusing maps. I heard it too but thought it might be a bit exaggerated. Nope. Not even a little. I visited the same caves over ten times from different entrances. They are supposed to be separate locations, not connected at all, yet they are the same exact rooms and pathways down to the rocks and crates on the ground. Same thing with warehouses. And back alleys some quests take you to. What you do in these areas is fight in endless boring wave combat. Gone are the days of tactical camera and important decisions mattering since now every single combat boils down to, kill the first ten enemies, wait an awkward two seconds, ten more enemies spawn, kill them, wait two awkward seconds, ten more enemies and it's done. Over and over and over and over again. And then there is the biggest victim of the time crunch, ACT 3. ACT 1 has 12 main quests. ACT 2 has 9. ACT 3 has 4. Which means the finale, out of everything, goes out on such a sad and pathetic whimper that feels beyond contrived. And then there is the final choice. No matter what you do, it goes down the same way. Though if you chose Orsino's side than the first of the two final bossfights is the worst piece of writing Bioware has ever produced. Despite all that, I cannot bring myself to hate the game. What saves it a lot is the main party of characters. They are such a joy to bring along, listen to and even let jump in for special dialogue moments. While the builds are less interesting than Origins, the tactics menus let you set up some pretty powerful allies that act pretty smart. My favorite part is ACT 2. It truly makes you feel like Hawke is making proper moves to navigate the difficult situation with the qunari and the Arishok and his approval are one of the coolest ideas this game brings forward. Great stuff overall. ACT 1 is also one of those rare occasions where every single main quest feels important to the present and future of the story. Such a good job to not have a single L quest in the longest act of the game. Overall, Dragon Age 2 makes me sad. If it was given proper time in the oven, we might have gotten a classic. Like this, we have an alright game that feels painfully average compared to its original. I can only recommend it on a discount.

Pros - Bioware writing at its finest - fantastic characters that are always entertaining to talk to and listen to - the world is beyond interesting, especially the dwarf and Chantry sections - villains I actually care to hate - incredible character build variety - the nonlinear nature of this game leads to some amazing moments - the DLC story content actually feels relevant, Awakening especially - harder difficulties especially feel right // Cons - the game aged horribly when it comes to running on modern hardware (basically unplayable without fan patches) // Returning to this game felt so incredibly fresh. Instant interest through the character origins and fantastic dialogue had me entranced through the entire runtime. But let us start with the one fatal flaw. Technical issues. Released in 2009 the game does not play nice with modern hardware. You need the 4GB LAA patch in order for the game to not consistently crash, especially in the Denerim section. The game also has a severe memory leak forcing you to turn it off and on every hour so the load times are not awful. And hey if you want the items and abilities to do what they say they do, Dains fixes. Want quests to reward what they are supposed to? Qwinns fixpack. Despite all of that though, I still think Dragon Age: Origins and its story DLCs are the best game in Bioware's library. The game hits you with intrigue off the bat since your origin story matters and interfaces with the main story. The three best backstories for the most main story interaction are Human Noble, Mage and Dwarf Noble. The character progression and build potential makes everyone feel distinct from each other and the roles they play are beyond important in taking on this game's fairly interesting combat. A single decision can often lead to spectacular stomps or downright blowouts. Which is why combat is never boring. Then there is the nonlinear structure to talk about. This game does it so well. From the time you leave Lothering you have five major locations you can visit in any order and complete as you see fit. The fact that decisions matter to the point where if you chose specific options in the Mage Tower it can either open or lock you out of specific outcomes in Redcliffe is just so wonderful to see. Nonlinear game done right. All in all, Origins stands the test of time as one of the best story driven RPGs of all time, the technical side notwithstanding. I love this game so much that all that a modern rerelease would have to do would be to just buff out the technical side without touching the story and visuals and I would still be happy.

Pros - social links and linked episodes being completely voiced is a massive W - linked episodes are outright better than quite a lot of the social links - the dorm hangouts humanize everybody so well - Tartarus is quite fun and quick to explore in this version unlike Portable - the various added town activities make the social aspect of the game shine so well // Cons - while I like the completely new songs in the OST whatever they did to all the original songs made them sound weird // My only previous experience with Persona 3 was the Portable remaster so coming into this reimagining I was dreading Tartarus and social links like the Moon Arcana. I was completely blown away by what I got. Number one, character writing. The amount of added content and context for the main cast is genuinely astounding. Dorm hangouts first. They are small side stories with the main cast, giving you a glimpse of all of your party members as they do normal people's activities. Shinjiro especially benefits from the new content since for me, he went from a plot device to one of the most likable dudes on the main roster. Linked episodes are next. Shinji, Ken and Akihiko stand leagues above ninety percent of the social links with their Linked episodes. Serving as the substitute for actual social links these side-stories work so well to build the guys where previously you were out of luck. Massive massive improvement. Another massive thing is that all of this new content, alongside all of the old social links, is voiced. I didn't know how much of an improvement this would be but wow is it gonna be tough to go back to some of the older games after such a massive quality of life improvement. Tartarus also got its own overhauls. The different blocks are stylistically completely different and more interesting to look at than the flat boring corridors of yesteryear. The sprint is such a nice addition that makes the bigger floors feel faster to explore. Nothing but improvements in this area. I love this remake and certainly hope that Persona 4 and 6 follows its example when it comes to voiced social links and more casual hangouts. What a wild ride this was.

Pros - the tactical gameplay is a really fun twist on the classic Persona gameplay - Toshiro and Erina are fantastic additions to the cast - surprisingly fun story // Cons - unlike strikers, the character writing for the original cast is meh at best - the fusion system is limited to two abilities instead of eight Another Persona 5 spin-off, another banger. For how relatively out of left field this addition to the Persona franchise gameplay is it works surprisingly well. The tactical gameplay is really fun to engage with. Movement, gun and skill range are all more surprisingly useful than any damage upgrades. Setting up devastating triple threats is the name of the game. Using strings of one-mores you can devastate entire battlefields in a singular turn. The story is very standard for specifically Persona 5 but it is executed exceptionally well. Erina and Toshiro are very enjoyable to explore as the story slowly unravels. They are both interesting and well written characters. Where the game falls short is in the writing of the phantom thieves themselves. It is not horrible, it is just mostly nothing new. What I actively dislike is them consistently relating to Toshiro with their struggles. It is so prevalent that by the third time it happens you are going to be like: Ah, here is the part of the scene where Yusuke relates. Futaba will relate here. Ryuji bouta relate so hard right now. Overall, love this addition to the Persona franchise and would love to see more games in this style from Atlus.

Pros - one of the greatest turn based combat systems in gaming - a staggering amount of playstyle customization - the story is simple yet so interesting - the 6 endings have their pros and cons making them quite equal - the party member customization is off the charts // Cons - the encounter rate is horrendously annoying without Estoma - teleport mazes abound - the initial onboarding for this game is unnecessarily obscure - the possibility of an ambush into an instakill spell is awful // SMT3: Nocturne is a classic for a reason. While initially harsh and unforgiving, once you learn what is required of you, it becomes quite a comfortable experience. For starters, the vibe this game gives is immaculate. From the world design to the OST I was **** in immediately. Then you are hit with the combat. While initially it can be a bit brutal, once you understand the importance of buffs, debuffs and the general usefulness of spells like Estoma, you are gonna be soaring through this game. As an older JRPG the lack of quest markers could be jarring but unlike modern RPGs the spoken directions are actually good so I was never lost for more than five minutes. The character and party member customization is terrific. My demifiend spent most of the game as a buff/debuff healer and only in the endgame I made a pretty easy switch to a physical attacker. The party was ever changing, but I brought some of my favorite skills, like Estoma and Focus through intricate fusion chains so the party members were never lacking. When it comes to the story and endings I have nothing to complain about. Simple yet effective is the name of the game here. Really fun interplay between Law/Neutral/Chaos and flip the table options for the endings add to the intrigue. Though most ending flags are quite obvious I feel like the triggers for the Freedom route are quite arcane. My issues stem from two things, encounter rate and teleport maze dungeons. Teleport mazes are particularly annoying to me since I don't consider a teleport to a random location a skill check but an annoyance. Compile that with being forced to back track and dealing with the abysmal encounter rate and you have all the ingredients to make some of the dungeons horrendously annoying. Overall, playing this game in 2025 after hearing about it for years made me truly appreciate just how deserved all the praise I heard was. If you are a fan of older games and want to experience one of the best combat systems in gaming, give it a spin.

Pros - an OK tracklist featuring remixes of songs from the base game - several difficulties going from beyond easy mode to impossible - a lot of costumes and unlockables - good smathering of social events // Cons - only about six hours of content - the story is a joke that doesn't matter The Persona series has one good rhythm game and two all right ones. P3 is one of those mediocre ones. There is not much to say about this game except it feels like a rush job to be released alongside the Persona 5 Dancing game. The gameplay is fun for what it is though some of the tracks featured are horrible remixes that mangle the original songs. Also, especially after playing the Persona 4 Dancing game, the amount of tracks that are just music clips with zero choreography is criminal. I don't hate this game, but I think that it is not worth the asking price unless it hangs around ten bucks.

Pros - a fantastic list of tracks - difficulty ranges between sleeper and impossible - solid amount of customization - the story is pretty good since it has an actually interesting continuation of the themes from the original RPG // Cons - the story being presented in purely visual novel style makes it sometimes drag - the monetary rewards to buy the costumes and accessories are miniscule so the grinding is annoying // Compared to the Persona 5 rhythm game, this one has way better offering of content. Mainly, besides only one track, the other twenty six are actually choreographed with the present characters. Also the note charting feels way better in this game then the P5 one. What is definitely better is the story, since it actually has one. Continuation of the P4 story with an interesting twist from accepting yourself to expressing yourself. I had a blast seeing the cast again and to see them deal with the new situation. What I was a little disappointed by was the presentation of the story. It is done in a visual novel style with purely the character cutouts on backgrounds. Static character cutouts that change their facial expressions slightly. It makes a lot of the more important story developments come out a little flat. The fact that it is all voiced is a huge boon though. In conclusion, I enjoyed this game quite a lot and since its kinda short it felt like a good pallet cleanser between larger games.

Pros - the OST is perfect - the cast of characters is wonderfully flawed - really enjoyable spread of social links - Inaba feels so homey after you play for a while - solid main story that ends in a very satisfying manner // Cons - the three hour intro before you are given full control is torture on subsequent playthroughs - still not a fan of randomly generated dungeons // Finally experiencing this game was a dream come true and it delivered on so many of my expectations. Great characters, great combat, satisfying side activities and so much customization between Social Link and Bike Ride skills. The story of this game is immediately intriguing as most murder mysteries are. The characters are fantastic and the fact that your own team members are subjects of their own dungeons is my favorite narrative element yet. It allows for deeper exploration of the main cast before they ever join you, allowing you to build rapport with them. The negative is the dungeons are still randomly generated. It is not egregious like Persona 3 since instead of 264 floors like in that game, you have 9 dungeons with a maximum of eleven floors. Still prefer the actual dungeon design of Persona 5. Combat is as always fun thanks to the staggering amount of customization you can do to your MC and to your team. Frankly, the level of fine tuning of your party members you can do through, Level Up skills, Social Link skills and Bike Ride skills is crazy. You can really build some broken teammates. Social links are the best between the P3, P4, P5 trilogy, though the best one still goes to P3 Sun. In P4 it feels way better than most P3 social links, since most of the stories are truly interesting. Daisuke and Kou, Yumi and Ayane, Nanko and Dojima, I was looking forward to all of their links. So good. I cant recommend this game enough. Buy it, play it, enjoy it. All the years I heard about it and the game did not disappoint. What a wonderful experience.

Pros - all six classical Final Fantasy games for the price of one modern game - each looks beautiful with gorgeous sprite work - many solid quality of life features that make the games way more replayable // Cons - none, genuinely can't think of one // The original Final Fantasy is just so simple yet so engaging. While the story is nothing to write home about, it does progression so well I don't really mind. From on foot, to ship to airship it feels genuinely good to explore in this game. Add to that the class upgrade and simple yet fun combat and you have a classic on hand. The often maligned Final Fantasy II plays really well with this remaster. Compared to the original, the addition of xp boosts and cursor memory makes grinding way easier, though it still feels unnecessarily tedious. Unlike the first one, this game actually attempts a story. If you like Empire Strikes Back, you will most likely like this one. I sure did. Final Fantasy III has a way less interesting story, but way more compelling gameplay ideas. Multiple airships and three different world maps keep the game surprisingly fresh for its entire runtime. But the most compelling thing about FF3 is the job system. Allowing you to swap anybody from a physical attacker to a mage, summoner, thief and plethora of other options gives insane amounts of freedom on the fly. Add to that the bosses not being pushovers in this game and you have the most fun combat system out of the original three games. The fourth game in the series is almost the complete opposite of its predecessor. Focused on a tightly told story it forgoes gameplay variety for a cast of well written characters. This lack of gameplay variety is luckily supported by a tight bit of game design, where enemies are perfectly tailored to challenge your current party. The introduction of the ATB system is also a good shakeup to the standard turn based formula, as it allows for certain mechanics (like Haste and Slow) to feel way better than in the previous installments. Fantastic addition to the Pixel Remaster collection. Final Fantasy V is a textbook example of how you innovate on an idea. While the story returns to being more generic like FF I and III, the gameplay improves so far that it completely overshadows all the other games on the Pixel Remaster collection. The improved job system is back, made so much better by being able to master said jobs and implement their skills on all the other jobs. The amount of build variety and the sheer number of ways you can completely shatter the game through things like Dual-Wield/Rapidfire/Spellblade and Dualcast/Mimic only serves the immense replayability. Add to that the best boss designs and you have gameplay that rivals even some of the more modern games. With Final Fantasy VI, we return to a bigger focus on the story and characters with more restricted gameplay. However, unlike FFIV the restrictions feel way less constraining since you have access to most of the cast for most of the game. You get up to fourteen playable characters that can all be angled into physical or magical playstyle, through the use of the esper system. Each of these characters gets a bit of a focus in the main story allowing them to shine and be the center of the attention. The main story also moves way more smoothly between the two acts than FFV, never feels like it is dragging its heels. This game is also the home of one of the most iconic villains for the entire series. Wonderful game that should be experienced at least once. All in all, the Pixel Remaster collection is one of the best deals on the market. Six brilliant games all for the price of a single modern video game. Seeing the begging of this iconic series gave me so much joy and so much more appreciation for the future entries. If you are on the fence, do yourself a favor and take the leap. You won't regret it.

Pros - the citizen hint system is incredible - I like every character in this game - one of the best executed XP systems - solid atmosphere all around // Con - sthe game is horribly optimized on the PS4 - frequent crashes - in combat you are either too OP or everything is super spongy, no in between - no fast travel makes the game obscenely tedious towards the end // Vampyr is a game of great ideas and terrible polish. The unique things it offers are great if not incredible, yet the most basic conveniences are a complete failure. Let me start with the good. The citizen hint system is one of the best executions on an original idea you can experience. It highlights interesting stories about the inhabitants and lets you discover more about them, while building quite a solid amount of mystique. I particularly enjoyed how the various citizen stories fit together in the Docks district. Almost ten characters individually connected to a single murder, each giving their own perspective. Brilliant. The hints also feed into the unique XP system. While fights give hilariously little XP and quests don't give that much either, there is another way to acquire power. By feeding on and killing the population of each district you can acquire gigantic amounts of XP. The dead person affects the disposition of their district, meaning that more people can succumb to diseases and the general area becomes more hostile towards you. I was shocked by the details of the environmental changes in Hostile districts, especially the Hostile Pembroke Hospital. But here is where the good stops and the bad begins. The combat is just so boring. No matter how you slice it, you are either doing too much damage, one and two-shotting everything, or you do too little and every fight becomes annoying. There is no middle ground and on top of that, while dodging is reliable, hitting people, especially with stakes, feels floaty. You can stand in front of them, locked on, and you still miss putting yourself back to back with the intended enemy. Feels weird. And then there is the optimization. I have not played a worse optimized game on the PS4 in my eight years owning that console. The game will freeze and randomly load in the middle of normal exploration, almost like it is loading the various districts up. Whenever you open a door, the game takes one or two seconds, deciding if it should crash or let you open it. This happens all the time. With every door. Without fail. The game is so consistent in these ponderous moments that I believe I have spent about an hour of my 25 hour play time just on opening doors. This game has no fast travel either. The amount of backtracking for the various citizen hints and quests gets so tedious by the end, I was listening to podcasts while running through the city. I got through two 1 hour podcast episodes thanks to this flavorless travel time. Truly a baffling choice. All that said, I found genuine enjoyment with this game. I love talking to the characters and learning their stories. Plus the main story and its conclusion took me by surprise with how good it was. If you can handle the diamond in the rough optimization, you will find an earnestly solid experience with some remarkably executed ideas.

Pros - really smooth and engaging combat - the addition of the parry feels so goddamn good - the reimagined castle feels so good to explore - the remade treasure system is way more flexible than the old - actually like Ashley in this game - Leon´s character is consistent with RE2 Remake // Cons - dialogue feels way less iconic compared to the original - some of the cut content from the main game (Salazar statue, U3) did not deserve to be cut - the voice acting for Ada feels so out of place compared to literally everybody else After playing the original and liking it quite a bit, I got to have a direct comparison to this remake. While there are a couple of missteps this game takes, over all I think it improves on the original immensely. Off rip, movement feels so much better here than in the original. While that game was built around that movement, I have never been a fan of tank controls so I personally feel this was a giant step in the right direction. The gunplay feels really good… if you jack your look sensitivity all the way to the max and get used to it. While the removal of incendiary grenades is sad, the addition of heavy grenades is a great addition. Then there is the parry button. A god tier addition making projectiles and certain knife fights go from annoying to great. I am of two minds on the writing in this game. On one hand, I really like the grittier and more realistic version of Leon, building on his character in RE2 Remake. His interactions with Ashley make both him but especially her much more relatable and fun. The villains like Krauser and Salazar also feel so much more understandable. On the other hand, I miss the goofy and often iconic dialogue of the original. Leon not being a quippy dumbass hitting backflips every three seconds just feels plain wrong. There are some sections of dialogue that were changed for no apparent reason making characters like Ada way more plain. It might just be her voice acting though. I really loved this game. So much so that I decided to platinum it and then get all the trophies for the separate ways dlc. It makes me so excited for the future of this series.

Pros - great atmosphere with some very stressful encounters - cheesy characters that I can't help but love - crazy good selection of weapons that change how you approach encounters - simple yet effective enemy variety that has you instantly do threat assessment and allows you to execute a lot of encounters with zero damage // Cons - the old system of tank controls just feels bad - the laser reticle is really jerky at the worst times // As the game that single handedly changed action shooters I had a lot of expectations going into Resident Evil 4. While the beginning was quite rough I found a genuinely fantastic game that still holds up after all these years despite some of its elements aging like milk. Off rip, the iconic village encounter sets the atmosphere of this game perfectly. Gone are corridors with one or two slow and shambling zombies and in comes the hoard of villagers that will rush you and overwhelm you without mercy. RE4 took the series in a new direction in this way, removing the horror of one or two resistant enemies and engaging you with the stress of facing down crowds. Cool change. What allows you to take these hoards effectively are close to the thirty weapons of choice. Multiple pistols, shotguns, magnums, rifles, grenades etc. All can be upgraded through the Merchant and all provide a crazy amount of variety to multiple runs. The story and the characters are the most 2005 thing I've seen in some time. The amount of tropes, the amount of cheese, the amount of goofy stupidity. I live for this stuff. So funny with some of the most out of pocket lines feeling like straight up 2024 brain rot. The things that are not good all stem from the relative age of the game. Being first to the pot of third person shooters carries a great legacy and great amount of jank. Leon is so slow to turn and look around, owing a great deal of this annoyance to the bum tank controls. Add to that the jerky laser reticle that makes you feel like Leon has undiagnosed Parkinsons and you have yourself one of the most hostile first two hours with any game. BUT, I eventually got used to both and by the end could even begin to appreciate how meticulous I had to be. Still, me accepting jank does not absolve the game from the annoyance of sometimes being smacked for what feels like Leon taking three years to turn thirty degrees to the right. All in all, when I started with this game I didn't like it yet the more I gave it, the more it gave back. By the end of my professional run I had very confident strategies and despite the tank controls working against me, I pulled off some incredible no damage sequences through hordes of enemies. Great feeling I can only attribute to the greater Resident Evil series and specifically to RE4. Would recommend.

Pros - the game runs and looks beautiful - great build variety - varied locations that reward game knowledge - interesting offering of bosses, that (while not all successful in being fun) allows them to all stand out in a distinct manner // Cons - navigating world/character tendency is beyond opaque and can have really detrimental effects on fun - some of the runbacks to bosses are criminal // The remake of Demon's Souls deserves all of its praise and more. With my only issues stemming from retaining the old mechanics of tendency and bad runbacks, this game stands alongside remakes like RE: Resident Evil 2. This is how you bring an older game to a modern audience. Right from the start, the boss design for this game is the most creative thing I have seen from modern Fromsoft. While there are the standard dodge-dodge-hit encounters, bosses like Phalanx, Tower Knight, Old Monk, Old Hero and Maiden Astrea provide unique challenges that require you to employ specific tactics depending on your build. The combat is as alway excellent and rewarding, owing most of its continued fun to the tremendous build variety. Most enemies I found annoying at first became completely trivial after I adjusted my strategy against them. And last but not least, the archstone system is a really good feature that allows varied non-linear exploration, allowing you to grab anything you need at the earliest opportunity. While the runbacks to bosses move between meh to really bad (Tower Knight), most of the locations give you ample opportunity to just run past enemies, if you are brave enough. The one really bad feature is the world/character tendency system. Really cool idea, but increasing enemy difficulty in such a severe manner by dying in Body form means most of the community constantly plays in Soul form, getting only half of their health and restricting themselves from any online Co-Op. Most players will insta-quit an invasion at the valid fear that it will mess up their world tendency, make the game harder to play and potentially lock them out of items and character quests. Just bad implementation of a really cool idea. In conclusion, Demon's Souls is a fantastic remake held back by old mechanics. But that doesn't stop it from being an incredible technical achievement for the PS5 and a genuinely great time once you get deeper into it.

Pros - some of the best dialogue writing ever - genuinely interesting main story and side content - insane build variety thanks to the cyberware/perk system - insanely good OST - the game looks beautiful - I like every single character I met - Phantom Liberty is a fantastic addition that only serves to elevate this game // Cons - the game crashes roughly every 8 - 10 hours, sometimes in very crucial moments - the wait/sleep/reload/afk alchemy you have to perform in order to activate certain side quests got annoying almost instantly and never improved - on PS5 ray tracing drops the game into unplayable framerate // My first experience with Cyberpunk 2077 was on the 2.2. As such I have avoided the release state and have mostly positive experience with this game. First things first, the writing. This game invites you to sit in quite substantial dialogues and never drops the ball on making them interesting. I believe every single character. There were zero times where I was kicked out of the story by someone saying something dumb. The writing for the main story is also fabulous. The ticking time element with very interesting characters and plot developments. Phantom Liberty continues with fantastic writing and is even more interesting. Truly great. Then comes the gameplay. Number 1: dash, airdash and double jump make this a completely different game. Unlocking these three options will be a must for all my later playthroughs. Number 2: the weapon variety with the attachment variety make this one of the most flexible gameplay systems I have engaged with. Number 3: perks and cyberware completely change and support how you engage enemies. Number 4: quick hacks are so goddamn fun and deadly. This game has gameplay variety like few others. Music is also great. From chill tracks like Isometric Air, tearjerkers like I Really Want to Stay at Your House, and just straight up bangers like Rebel Path, Who´s Ready for Tomorrow and Circus Minimus, this game does not lack for entertainment in the slightest. The gangs having their own themes is also hype, making me especially fond of fighting the Scavs and Valentinos. My problems stem from two main issues. Crashing and quest triggers. I spent 141 hours on the platinum of this game on patch 2.2. In that time I experienced 15 crashes. Random ones too. The last one happened about 30 minutes before I unlocked the plat and finished with the game. No game I have played in a long time was this prone to crashes. The quest triggers annoyed me more though. For a lot of side quests and even some main quests you have to receive calls. As for how to trigger these calls is still a mystery to me as I had to engage with near alchemy consisting of waiting, sleeping, reloading and going afk for 10 - 15 minutes in order to get some of these calls. Not fun, hope we can just get quest markers for the next game or at least fixed times for when these calls occur. All in all, I love this game. It is flawed in some ways, but makes up for it in so many others. It really is a shame it had to be released in such a poor state since I believe that if 2.2 was its original state, it would be considered a modern classic.

Pros - the moment to moment exploration is incredibly immersive - building my houses is a great endgame money sink // Cons - the writing is generally terrible on all fronts - still unendingly buggy after all these years - your enjoyment has about a 10 hour shelf life before the game just becomes samey - the main draw of the game, dragon fights, are a messy jankfests that become meh after the second dragon you fight and down right annoying by the fifth // Replaying Skyrim after a five year break left me shocked with how badly this game aged. It might be that I played better put together games over the years, but no way in hell I expected for my rose tinted goggles to be ripped away almost instantly. Off rip, I don't care. Whenever anyone opens their mouth in this game I just blue screen until it is over. I am capable of sitting in hour-long cutscenes in franchises like Trails and Metal Gear and be thoroughly entertained for the entire duration. Trails is mostly reading too. How does voiced dialogue do so poorly to keep my attention is beyond me. The combat is nothing to write home about. Magic **** on anything other than the two easier difficulties. Melee is boring. The stealth archer makes some of the boring slog nordic ruins last even longer. Every gameplay choice you make in this game puts in back to back double shifts to be as uninteresting as possible. While most of the questlines are thoroughly yawn inducing, the Civil War is downright egregious in how low you can sink. Fast travel, join one side, fast travel, nordic ruin, fast travel, clear out fortress, fast travel, clear out fortress, fast travel, clear out fortress….. zzzzzzzzzzz. Oh and we done. Riveting. And while I say all that, Skyrim still has some things going for it. The first couple of hours are incredible. This game puts its best foot forward with the detailed world that invites exciting exploration. And while that also fades after you discover that it is mostly a one trick pony with its nordic ruins, I will never deny it that initial excitement. Rating Skyrim is genuinely difficult. I put well over a thousand hours into this game over three of its re-releases that I bought with my own money. At one point, over ten years ago, this has been my favorite game of all time. But time was not kind to Skyrim, as the industry moved on and I apparently raised my standards. It will be a long long time before I pick this game up again. If I pick it up again…

Pros - the best iteration of the combat yet - banging OST - exploration is made infinitely more interesting by adding the ship and centering the game around smaller islands - genuinely fun story with memorable characters - the reduction in character roster only makes the game more focused on delivering spectacular abilities // Cons - weapons and armor not carrying over into NG+ feels cheap especially when both your accessories and mana seeds do carry over // Nordics is the most fun I have had with the Ys series yet. Dropping the party based combat for a duo based system is a welcome change that only serves to distinguish this game from the rest, and excites me for the next one. Like mentioned before, the party of six where three members were active is gone and instead we now only have two party members. This also means that the slash/pierce/blunt system is gone, in favor of damage/break. This, alongside the option of duo abilities, duo parries and the revenge gauge make this a really rounded out system that feels great to engage with. Next great addition is the ship. First time since 2013 I have felt the same excitement for world exploration as with Assassins Creed: Black Flag. While simpler than AC, the ship serves as a great mobile base for you and your crew, allowing you to engage in exploration of smaller island areas that have a lot of fun packed into them. To compare it to another game, Sandras the ship gives me the feeling of Normandy from Mass Effect, in the way that I find it a home that I return to when I want to talk to people. And the characters this game offers you, make all the talks worthwhile. While I liked the previous casts quite a lot, the game having only two playable characters means that there aren't any weaknesses in Adol and Karja, since the game can just focus down on the story of these two. And still, the rest of the crew is just as impactful on my time with the game as the two protagonists. Just chefs kiss. I can not recommend this game enough. Incredible combat, fun characters and a main story that is intriguing to explore. All of it and more, make this game a classic for me.

Pros - simple and fun platformer - great collectathon - enjoyable level design - impressive use of game physics // Cons - soundtrack goes from unobtrusive to annoying on some of the harder levels, as it constantly repeats from the beginning if you die Simple and fun game, that doesn't take ages to complete and thus does not overstay its welcome. A solid amount of levels with a lot to collect and a lot to break. Genuinely impressive use of physics with hundreds of individual items filling the screen without any slowdowns. The later levels especially excel in the trial and error loop that allows you to slowly build up a mental map of said levels and then execute flawlessly. Definitely recommend this as a truly impressive pallet cleanser between any two larger releases.

Pros - expanded 2018 combat system in all the right ways - breathtaking performances - fun exploration - higher difficulties highlight the best parts of the combat system - insanely better enemy variety compared to 2018 // Cons - the boat/sled exploration is made annoying by voice lines getting repeated every 10 seconds (every Mimir story has two sentences to catch the player up if interrupted, and those can last just long enough to not get anywhere before the new point of interest and then repeat again) // The follow up the incredible God of War 2018 had a lot to live up to. And it somehow exceeded every expectation I had for the game. Every aspect I liked about the 2018 game is better than before and it is not even close. The expanded combat with some of the skills from the previous entry becoming basic abilities is so much fun. New Runic Attacks and the use of the triangle button to add extra potential to every weapon pays off so much that by the first two hours it felt like something that was always a part of the 2018 formula. What aids this feeling is the expanded enemy variety. Several factions, with distinct abilities and bosses that are far more varied than the 2018 six flavors of troll. All of the enemies have clear attack patterns, reducing a lot of the 2018 screen clutter. All of the weapons being part of exploration is also a lot of fun. While the game still has that glued to the ground issue, the blades especially add some much needed briskness to movement. Then there is the story. This game does far more with its narrative than I ever expected. Going through the base game, it builds slowly until about chapter six. After that the game just does not let off the gas, ending in one of the most epic sequences I have ever played. And then comes Valhalla. A free piece of DLC that gives genuinely emotional redemption to Kratos. They cooked with this game. And they cooked hard. All in all, God of War Ragnarök should be a glowing standard to what sequels should be. Improvement on all fronts, with satisfying gameplay and narrative. Could not recommend this game any harder.

Pros - solid combat - great OST - exploring the city of Balduq is fun thanks to all the gift abilities - narrative builds to some fun reveals - all characters play well, their abilities and charged attacks making them feel distinct // Cons - the Dandelion pub is not as exciting to me as the outcast village in Ys VIII - Grimwald Nox Sieges and Purges get old almost immediately - there is a cutscene that plays at the start of every Grimwald Nox that feels like it is playing at 15fps compared to the rest of the game // Ys IX is a quite interesting departure from the other Ys games I have played. Unlike all the other titles, it focuses on a singular city, Balduq, and its surrounding areas. Despite that, it does not feel smaller than the previous games and in some aspects, it manages to feel bigger. Exploration in Balduq is made incredibly fun through the various monstrum abilities, called gifts. Teleporting to points, wall running, gliding, third eye, charged attacks and ground diving all synergize perfectly in order to make your time spent on exploring the city fun. I was always excited about getting new party members to see what new things I will be able to access. Combat against regular enemies and bosses is also quite fun, mainly thanks to the damage type system, defensive options and the characters. And man do these characters play well. Everyone has up to 10 different abilities that you can level, allowing you to create your own unique playstyle for each of your six party members. I also love the bosses in this game. Vast majority of them are genuinely fun to engage, and the fun is only heightened on the higher difficulties. When it comes to the OST, I mean come on. It is Falcom, so it is great automatically. There was not a song that annoyed me, which is impressive since you spent most of your time in the city. Each district has its own theme and all of them never got even bothersome. Ys IX was a great experience I can only recommend. Another great entry into the ever growing Falcom library.

Pros - stellar combat - one of the best OSTs - building up your village and unlocking the map feels really fun and intuitive - really engaging narrative with fun twists - great cast of characters - the rewards in this game feel almost always impactful // Cons - the weapons and liquid medicine not carrying over to NG+ is disappointing - Raids and Hunts get repetitive quickly // Ys 8 genuinely surprised me with how much it delivered on the hype. Every aspect of this game feels polished and crafted to feed perfectly into all the other parts of this game. And the game somehow manages to not run out of steam even on a NG+ Nightmare platinum run. For starters, there are very few games that do rewarding exploration as well as Ys VIII. Behind every corner there is something that will aid you or a fun fight. Sometimes you find roadblocks for which you need more people in your village to clear, creating a natural path through the game that manages to not feel restrictive. The village plays a big part in the enjoyment as well. Slowly getting new people that unlock new facilities only incentivizes more exploration. It also means that you grow quite familiar with a quite large cast of unique characters that all manage to feel grounded in the world. The combat feels incredibly smooth, with bosses that are no slouches and regular enemies that all reward making the best use of your party members. The three damage types work well to let you dominate or be dominated if you underestimate certain enemies. Flash Guard and Flash Dodge feel great to pull off and each character getting 12 abilities gives you quite a spread of playstyles. This is all underlined with one of the best soundtracks I have ever experienced in video games. From the first time you step foot on the island to the final boss battle, the quality never drops off and serves to push all the other excellent features to further. Overall, I loved my time with Ys VIII and I can only recommend it to anyone who is interested in giving this series a go.

Pros - combat feels great - the 6 playable characters all feel distinct - OST is full of bangers - the story is fun and not overly complex // Cons - not a fan of abilities being unlocked randomly - going for a 100% map discovery is beyond anti-fun // Memories of Celceta surprised me with just how fun it was. From the very first moment when the gameplay kicks in, to the very last, the game had me hooked. Combat instantly clicked. Charged attacks, abilities, dodging, guarding, character switching… it all feels smooth and natural. Add to that the six playable characters and their different kits and you have an instant hit. All is crowned with the advent of flash dodge and flash parry and… just… chefs kiss. Not to be outdone, the OST only adds to the great feeling of combat. There is not a single track in the entirety of this game that isn't amazing. I was waiting for them to miss, but they never did. Every new map gave me a new track that just pumped me up to keep going. The story is not the most riveting thing of all time, but it feels good to see some of the old JRPG tropes done in a solid way. The thing that makes it good, is the characters and their personalities, that have me enjoying almost every interaction. Now, going for the platinum showed some of the less fun parts of this game. Chief among them, the map discovery. That thing will have you running wall to wall like a roomba and scouring every corner just to make sure you didn't miss that 0.1% in some dumb corner. Overall, Memories of Celceta felt really good compared to my previous experiences with the Ys series. If you need a palette cleanser between some of the more involved and complicated games, this one is fantastic.

Pros - one of the best feeling combat systems - stellar acting and voice work - solid amount of post game content - genuinely fun on harder difficulties // Cons - lack of an ability to jump makes exploration annoying - some skill upgrades can screw you over like Countering Blast - some enemies (read Dark Elves) are beyond frustrating to fight // God of War is a beautifully realized game with a simple yet fun combat system that feels perfect. Add to that the stellar throw and return mechanic on the Leviathan axe and you have a genuinely fantastic combat. When it comes to fighting, God of War will grab you from the very first encounter and carry you to the end with a surprising amount of visceral grace. Kratos feels weighty. Every move he implements is savagely visceral and just feels right to perform. The solid variety of Runic arts only adds to that. Then there is the story. Surprisingly, a game with such a solid combat base is not slacking in this aspect either. Everybody does a fantastic job and everybody within the game just feels so natural. I never doubted anyone saying anything. Couple of gripes would be the out of combat movement and some of the regular skills. The lack of a jump button really limits the game's potential for fun exploration. Then there are the skills, especially Countering Blast. Looks cool, not expensive but if it is multiple projectiles coming right at you, you will most likely parry the first projectile and then get stuck in the return animation as you get pelted by the rest of the attacks. Overall God of War is a beautiful game that I could only recommend.

Pros - really fun world exploration - fantastic stroy - great characters - the materia system allows for anybody to become anything - iconic OST // Cons - a lot of the original backgrounds make it hard to see where you can go and what you can interact with - ATB system feels fundamentally less fair than the traditional turn based approach // Final Fantasy VII surprised me so much. For years I have bounced off of this game and suddenly I finished it this time. And what a journey it has been. Let me start with the worst part of this game. The backgrounds did not age well at all. Being able to see the exits by toggling with the touchpad saved me hours of frustration, though some of the exits still are unclear on how to reach them. And that is it for the bad part. What the game does well is everything else. The story is gripping and the characters are fun and relatable. The variety of locations and abilities is staggering. It truly feels like a globetrotting adventure. The biggest contribution to that feeling are the numerous means of travel that always open a new way to get to previously locked off spaces. The submarine especially blew me away as I didn't expect the places it gives you access to. As to the abilities this game throws at you, I am going to mention the Enemy Skill materia and The Knights of the Round. Enemy skill is a game in itself. It had me setting my own goals in the game to accomplish. Such a cool idea. Knights of the Round are just peak, over the top idea that I didn't get bored of even though I have seen it a thousand times. Og FF7 aged surprisingly well on all its fronts except the navigation in some of the busier backgrounds Minor blemish on a groundbreaking entry.

Pros - the built in turbo mode is appreciated - great OST, especially the battle theme // Cons - Remaster not a Remake so a lot of the ''graphical enhancements'' and ''gameplay improvements'' feel non existent - the junction system makes any character switching beyond tedious - magic being drawn and linked to stats made me not cast a single spell throughout the entire runtime of the game - a lot of the side content in the game feels like something that would be left on a cutting room floor when it comes to the other FF entries // Final Fantasy VIII feels like it had a lot of ideas and ambitions, yet no idea on how to execute them. Most of this game feels rough and unfinished while the combat and the junction system show some genuinely cool ideas. So, the Junction system. Out of everything this game does, this feels like the most fleshed out idea it had. Players being capable of manipulating every stat the character has is a genuinely interesting idea. The fact that it is linked to actual spells guts that system though. First of all, you will never want to engage with the Magic command at all for the fear of using one of your linked spells and decreasing your stats. For the other, the complexity of linking every stat makes the instances where your party is limited or outright different feel so annoying, as there are moments that feel like you should Re-Junction party members every five minutes since they come and go that fast. The prison section being a prime example of this. The story is meh for the first sixty percent, then it gets kind of interesting. Personally, this is the least I felt connected to a cast of characters in a while. Most of them I will forget in a couple of days and never remember again. This game also being a Remaster not a Remake does not give it any favors since I don't think it aged well. A lot of the systems feel convoluted for the sake of being convoluted and the menus serve more to confuse you rather than help you. In conclusion, FF8 Remastered is by far not the worst game I have ever played, but the lack of polish, the showing age and the systems that feel annoying to engage with makes me feel like the game needs a proper Remake. One can only hope.

Pros - the gameplay feels even better than the Remake - way larger build variety thanks to the 8-slot armors - old playable characters have new mechanics while the new add even more gameplay variety - voice acting is perfect, especially Tifa and Barret - music is always scene appropriate with some incredible callbacks - the world is massive and the way it is interconnected gives me so much hope for Part 3 - the content to price ratio is crazy for this game // Cons - not a fan of having to increase my limit break level in each and every combat to get access to the actually good ones - the lack of materia loadouts makes chapters where you change between two parties annoying (Chapter 13 on Hard had me spending more time in the equipment menu than actually playing the game) - the most memorable side-quest in the game is the chicken quest in Gongaga, not because it's good but because it is annoying - the navigation in Gongaga **** // Where Remake surprised, Rebirth delivers twice as hard. I was expecting a solid game and I got way more than I bargained for. Everything, from the combat to the exploration is better here than it was in Remake which makes me beyond excited for Part 3. Combat is better than ever. Taking a lesson from Intergrade, Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie give your party crazy amounts of air combos allowing the flying enemies not to ****. Then you add the synergy abilities. Then you add new defensive options like counterfire. And you crown it with a perfect parry system that can keep you completely unharmed if you are good. Genuinely crazy how much this game improves on Remake. The world is way bigger with side activities that unlock more materia and armor options for your characters. When the world completely opens in the later chapters I was floored by just how well connected everything was. And while there are some misses, like Gongaga thanks to its vertical navigation, the world is fun to explore and the enemies are fun to engage. A highlight of the game would be Golden Saucer and the myriad activities that unlocks. From combat challenges, cards and arcade games, Golden Saucer is a game within a game. Truly fantastic. One of my complaints would be the lack **** loadout system. The constant need to fiddle with my materia setups is not a bad thing in itself. However, the need to completely redo a character setup because the game gives you only TWO First Strike materia and TWO ATB Boosts is crazy. Some of the later chapters had me sitting in the menus for tens of minutes at a time because the story would split my party and force me to play as different setups every thirty minutes. Overall I was surprised by just how much I got out of Rebirth. While it is not a perfect experience, it does so much right that I can overlook the minor blemishes. Can't wait for the next game.

Pros - crisp combat that feels fair - the best boss design in Dark Souls - the Ringed City DLC only serves to elevate the game - massive amounts of build variety // Cons - way less interconnected map design - the only good thing about Ashes of Ariandel is the final boss fight // Being the third game, following what many people consider a disappointing entry and ending the Dark Souls series, DSIII had to stick the landing. We are all lucky it didn't just stick it. DSIII landed on its feet and decided to do cartwheels. Best boss design among the three entries. Massive weapon, armor and ring variety that allows for an unimaginable amount of builds. Combat that doesn't feel like two trucks trying to flip each other over. It does everything right. As to the previously mentioned boss design, it is goated. Nameless King and the Slave Knight are my two favorite fights amongst everything Fromsoft has ever released. Dancer, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers are iconic. The only bosses I would label as bad are Aldritch, Wolnir and Scat Tree. DSIII also does something that is not just rare for a Fromsoft game, it is very rare in media in general. It provided one of the most cinematic and mechanically engaging fights as the very final thing you engage in. And where Gale runs, Nameless walks. Both of them are so mechanically perfect, that dying to them truly feels like a mistake on my part instead of a wrong hitbox. Ingenious. Dark Souls III is the rare media conclusion, where everybody left satisfied at the end. If you have doubts about jumping in, just take the leap and experience one of the best products, from one of gaming's biggest darlings.

Pros - one of the best level designs in gaming for both games - ridiculous value when it comes to content to price ratio - genuinely tense moments on higher difficulties - fun to learn and dominate after your first playthrough // Cons - the constantly switching camera angles often mess up movement during high tension moments - Resident Evil 0 has the worst inventory system I experienced in a while // Both the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0 are extremely fun to learn and get a platinum trophy. There are some miss steps, especially in RE0 but overall both of these games are worthwhile to 100%. One of the strongest parts of both of these games is just how good it feels to plan a route to items you need and then executing the route perfectly. Knowing there are three zombies and a hunter you need to avoid to get some bullets and a key item and then navigating the route perfectly without taking damage feels exhilarating. The upgrades you get for weapons feel substantial and the higher difficulties actually change how you evaluate certain items and the lengths you are willing to go through to obtain them. It is genuinely crazy how much risk assessment you learn to do once you master these games. The issues come once you look at movement though. As much risk assessment as you can do and as perfectly as you can plan a route, there are certain areas that feel designed to mess you up. The fixed camera angles often screw you up since they can change on a dime and completely turn around your sense of direction, sending you right into an enemy. Resident Evil 0 also decides to get rid of item boxes and instead forces you to drop your items on the ground. A horrible decision really since once you need to pick something up, you will awkwardly shimmy around the item only for the character to pick up something else. It adds so much unnecessary time to that game and gets really annoying on the second and every future playthrough. Overall, I had good times with both RE and RE0. Not perfect, but good. If you enjoy semi challenging platinums or if you want to see the start of an iconic series, this collection is fantastic, especially for the price you can find it today.

Pros - dialogue is still at the peak - the game is beautiful to look at - chapter 9 joins the hall of fame of action set pieces // Cons - character movement is still mind numbingly slow - final boss is MEH // Uncharted game without Nathan Drake and it is still so good. The set pieces, the dialogue, the graphics. All of it comes together to deliver one final hurrah for the series. It is also hard to talk about The Lost Legacy without being redundant. The game is identical to Uncharted 4 with all of its mechanics, the only new thing being the lockpick. Which means the game is still just as fun to play as Uncharted 4. The shorter run time serves the game well as it is very focused on a singular adventure without any slack in the middle like in some of the previous games. I can recommend this game as much as Uncharted 4. Fantastic experience for fans of the series and a good note to end on for now.

Pros - the character writing is beyond fantastic - some of the best dialogue in video games - the game looks stunning - Chapter 11 is one of the best action set pieces in video games - the grappling hook and pick make climbing fun // Cons - Nathan moves painfully slow especially in some of the bigger more open areas - the two Nadine ''boss fights'' are awful - crushing feels way less fun compared to the three previous titles // Uncharted 4 is a beautiful closing chapter for an iconic series. Every single character comes full circle and the new faces are all memorable, especially the main antagonist. When it comes to character and story writing, it rarely comes anywhere near Uncharted 4. The gut punch after Chapter 11, the ''I'm sorry'' scene, the main antagonist monologuing before the final fight, etc. All of the story is written and acted expertly well. Add to that just how beautiful the game looks and you have one of the best pieces of storytelling in gaming. Climbing got new mechanics with both the pick and the grappling hook, the latter serving a fantastic role in repositioning during combat. I wish the pick was unlocked earlier so the climbing was more interesting but I can live with that. What I can't live with is the two Nadine Ross fights. Both of them are extremely contrived ''gameplay'' sections that end up with you losing anyway. Not winning in a game, losing in the cutscene. You lose throughout the ''gameplay'' where your button presses mean nothing. And it is a baffling design choice considering the final bossfight has the simple yet effective dodge left, dodge right button inputs. The two Nadine fights should have been those mechanics to prepare you for a much harder version of this system in the final fight. Replaying the series and especially this game after five years blew me away. What an incredible set of games and what a fantastic, full circle ending to one of the best written characters gaming has to offer. I could not recommend this series enough.

Pros - fun to learn the route and then execute it to the best of your ability - the post game shop where you spend points earned from challenges is a great reward - impressive graphic - ssolid sound design // Cons - way less scary and tense than RE2 - way, way shorter than RE2 // Resident Evil 3 Remake is a solid game that is not as good as its Remake predecessor. While I say that, it is still really good. Once again, my fun with the RE series starts on the second playthrough. Where the first is tense because I am learning the game all the later playthroughs are fun because I know the locations of the items and can route the game appropriately. Where this game also shines is in the Records section. Records offer you various challenges that give you points, which you use to buy bonus gear for your later playthroughs. Brilliant system that makes it fun to replay the game. Where it stumbles is the amount of content. Where RE2 had the advantage in the brilliantly designed police station that linked all the way to the later stages of the game, RE3 map design is rather forgettable and linear. The game is also between four to six hours on your first playthrough, which you can comfortably cut down to about an hour of playtime once you know the game. All in all, I enjoyed RE3 Remake enough to recommend it though compared to the brilliant RE2 I see it as more of a 40$ game rather than a full priced release.

Pros - fantastic characters and dialogue - great location variety - higher difficulties feel actually good to play - combat is simple yet fun - the spectacle sections are always exhilarating // Cons - cover mechanics are janky enough to cause unnecessary deaths - all final boss fights are unbearably mid - Drake's Fortune aged poorly when it comes to the amount of combat compared to character moments // The three game collection of Uncharted is incredible. While the first game is leagues below the second and the third, it is still a good enough experience to warrant its place on the collection. What shocks me the most is the character writing. Nathan, Sully, Elena, Chloe and Charlie are all great characters that are never annoying to listen to. It is shocking to me just how good their interactions actually are. The dialogue is snappy and often funny, there is solid chemistry where there needs to be and it is all supported with animations that are far too character appropriate for their time. Beating all the games on Crushing also gave me a good amount of appreciation for the combat in the series. Where in the beginning it felt like I was getting my teeth kicked in every encounter, by the time I rolled credits on the third game, I left with a plethora of strategies on how to deal with every single encounter. Where the three games shine is in the location variety. Deep jungle, toombs, castles, underground railway, ship graveyard and more. These locations are often accompanied by breathtaking spectacles where the previously mentioned locations fall apart around you. My two biggest gripes are the cover mechanics and boss fights. Going into cover works well 80% of the time. In the remaining 20%, you try to change from cover to cover, perform a half baked roll, Nathan stands up and you get lasered down by the enemies. Especially on the higher difficulties. All the final boss fights are nothing to write home about. In Uncharted 2 they managed to cobble together something not terrible but not good either. Uncharted 1 is just kill fodder until you kill the main boss in a QTE sequence. And Uncharted 3 has the longest and most boring QTE bossfight in the series. Overall, I am stunned at how well written the main cast of these games are. The main story is always an interesting delve into mythical treasure that I enjoy a lot. I feel like any fan of the old Indiana Jones movies will have a field day with this series.

Pros - fun gameplay - great character customization - surprising amount of gear and exospine combinations that tweak the gameplay to your liking - solid story // Cons - wooden voice acting in English - the two big open areas are both deserts - platforming feels abysmal // Stellar Blade is surprisingly fun. The gameplay is tight, the story is solid, the gear choices you make feel impactful. The only blemishes I could find are minor and can be polished in the future. Like any Fromsoft inspired game, it features its own bonfire/estus flask based exploration, where the camps serve as checkpoints between fight intensive sections. The boss fights are plentiful and are quite fun, though it is fairly obvious that their quality and fun dramatically increases towards the end. What also surprised me is how much I like the side characters. Su and Enya's story was quite touching. Francis and his brother were fascinating to follow. Roxanne was always fun to talk to. And D1G-g2r was quite fun as well. While the gameplay didn't go beyond fetch quests, the story was almost always worth it. Where the game fumbles big time is platforming and voice acting. While there are some good performances (Eve, Lilly, Orcal), most of them sound wooden and emotionless. While that is something I can get over, the platforming was just infuriating. Especially on those round robots, where Eve seems to put on ice skates and slide right off. The momentum you get when you jump off of a rope swing also often feels weird. Almost like you hit an invisible wall and slide alongside it completely missing your mark. In conclusion, as a fan of the Nier series, Stellar Blade carries the Automata influence on its sleeve which I appreciate. By itself, it is an incredibly fun game that has some rough edges. Surprisingly fun endeavor from a studio that only made mobile games prior to this.

Pros - highly replayable thanks to the amount of outcomes - great acting all around - interesting world - great characters // Cons - on PS5 it has a shoddy performance that feels like the game has a memory leak - not really a game, more like an interactive movie - the three storylines the game follows vary greatly in quality // Detroit: Become Human is more an interactive movie than an actual videogame. While I enjoyed it enough to actually platinum the game, I could see some people not really being grabbed by the experience as a whole. The biggest compliment I can give this game is the sheer amount of possibilities. Genuinely the amount of outcomes that this game has is staggering and thanks to its solid chapter system you can experience these various outcomes super easily. The performances are also solid all around. There is not a single character who I don't believe. However, when it comes to the stories these characters experience, there is a clear difference in writing quality. Kara's story is the weakest. Markus is leaps and bounds better. And Connor and Hank are the absolute cream of the crop this game has to offer. It is quite jarring how much I enjoyed myself throughout every Connor chapter, how interested I was in the outcomes for Markus and how much I was trying to speedrun the Kara sections. Overall, I enjoyed this movie/game way more than I initially thought I would, to the point where I wouldn't mind a spinoff of just Connor and Hank. Genuinely a unique experience.

Pros - simple and fun gameplay - abundance of options - the class system that allows you to access various collectibles - a lot of the collectibles offer fun puzzles to solve // Cons - the sidequests are boring and often annoying - traveling from planet to planet is made annoying thanks to the constant take off and landing cutscenes that are unskippable - still buggy in 2024, needed to reload areas and turn off the game for some npcs and items to appear // So I finished the main story of the Skywalker Saga at around 15 hours in and I decided to get the platinum. After the main story I thought what a fun experience, the 100% needed for the platinum made it rather tedious. The main story offers a bunch of movie levels with the occasional boss battle. Nothing is taken seriously and the ideas and mechanics are kept fresh with each trilogy introducing new character classes. The classes themselves serve their purpose to allow you to engage with different mechanics around the varied levels, giving you access to different areas and different collectibles. This is only expanded in the freeplay mode and the open galaxy mode. Open Galaxy however is where the cracks start to show through. It is here where you can engage with side quests and planet collectibles and there is just one simple issue. The side quests are boring and annoying and there are way too many collectibles. Seriously, if this game featured a quarter of the side content it has, it would feel way better. I finished the main quest 15 hours in. I got the plat 87 hours in. Where I started with my opinion quite high, by the end I was quite meh about the game. Sometimes, less is more.

Pros - fantastic soundtrack - great characters - solid combat mechanics - the best themes out of the modern Persona games - possibility to reverse a social link is a great way to keep things interesting // Cons - Tartarus overstays its welcome - social link events are way too short Coming into this game after P5 had me surprised. How could a predecessor for one of my favorite games of all time compare to that greatness? What I found left me floored though a little disappointed. Right off the bat, the way P3P plays with its themes is wonderful. Mixing a lot of different ideas about coming to terms with our own mortality lends this game a great atmosphere in which characters can thrive. And they do just that. I like every single party member in the game. All of them. The Sun arcana link is the best written social link I have experienced between P3 and P5. Characters like the Hierophant and Fortune are also super enjoyable. The combat is simple yet effective. There was never a time where a fight became a major issue, since I could strategize around it with some clutch Persona fusions. When it comes to negatives, let's talk about Tartarus. Tartarus is the: Turn off sound and put on a podcast for hours on end as you make your way through floor after floor after floor after floor after floor and so on. 264 floors to be exact. Also while I like most of the social links, these end way too quick. Sometimes it feels like you make a day for someone and then they hit you with like three sentences, your social link level increases and you are done. Kinda anticlimactic. Overall though, this game entertained me more than it annoyed me. I still think it is a fantastic addition to any collection and you will enjoy your time with it.

Pros - great characters - fantastic ost - build customization feels intuitive and natural - combat is simple yet satisfying - story is great // Cons - the DMW system often stonewalls leveling and crafting - 300 side missions that feel AI generated - questionable voice direction - Genesis is a product of his time and my eyes glaze over whenever he opens his mouth // Crisis Core is a good game that is a little shy of becoming truly great. The best part of it is the story and the combat customization, crowned by a truly memorable ending. From the very start, Crisis Core takes you back to the 2010s with its characters and storytelling. Trope after trope that somehow feels endearing rather than embarrassing (not counting Genesis). It gives you a solid base of information and fils in the gap left by the original story of Final Fantasy VII. Gameplay consists of using one of the six customizable abilities that you can equip alongside up to four accessories. This creates fairly deep character customization with which you can fail a fight, switch up a couple of things and then completely dominate. All of it feels very natural. My two biggest gripes are the DMW system and the Missions. The DMW being an actual random chance slot machine that decides if you level up, if your materia levels up, if you get a buff that ranges from god tier to useless or if you get nothing. If this was just kept to random buffs I would have no issues with it but the fact it can stonewall your leveling feels between annoying and downright frustrating. Then there are the 300 Missions. I got a Platinum for this game which means I did all of them and I don't think I could describe more than four of them. The secret boss mission, the 1-1-1 where I afk grinded levels, the kill 1000 enemies mission and then the mission where you go through a couple of corridors, pick up chests and fight a boss. Oh except the last one is copied 297 times. It is one of those hunker down, listen to a podcast and turn your brain off kinda activities. Overall, I enjoyed my time with Crisis Core a lot mainly thanks to the different build variety and the story. A worthwhile endeavor for anyone interested in playing the Remakes/Rebirths.

Pros - the gameplay is fun and feels crisp - build variety is quite robust thanks to myriad weapons and materia combinations - all playable characters feel distinct from each other in gameplay - great dialogue with amazing voice acting - the music is just perfect - the world feels extraordinarily immersive // Cons - Chapters 5, 6, 10 (because of 14) and 15 feel like filler that would have been better left on the cutting room floor - aerial combat in the main game is undercooked (Yuffie in Intermission fixes it) // This game is fantastic beyond measure, reimagining a classic for modern audiences. While there are things to complain about, it is a masterpiece despite its flaws. From the beginning to the end, the presentation, the characters and the dialogue feel fun and grounded. There is not a second in this game where I doubt anyone saying anything at all thanks to the wonderful script writers and voice actors. Then they hit you with the combat. Fast paced, dynamic, and fun action made deeper with the myriad of choices you make before you engage with it. Weapon upgrades, materia builds, character unique abilities, limit breaks, summons and more. All of the choices you make feel good. The difference between defeat and victory often stems from your preparation beforehand. What blew me away was the devs evolving the gameplay between the main game and the Intermission dlc. In the main game, aerial combat is undercooked and feels really bad. You have no defense in the air and you are often there for only three attacks that do almost nothing. The dlc fixes it, giving Yuffie an actual way to stick to aerial enemies and giving her a defense option with Brumal Form. The dlc also adds an incentive to perfect block showing that the devs are not afraid to evolve and improve their own gameplay, which gives me a lot of hope for the future installments. My other complaint stems from Chapters 5, 6, 10 and 15. Every single one of these feels like filler. If these specific chapters were cut the game would lose nothing and it would help the pacing considerably. Chapter 10 especially since in Chapter 14 you retrace the same area and fight the same boss. Overall, my experience with FFVII Remake is extraordinarily good. The couple of blemishes I mentioned did not stop me from getting a platinum for both the PS4 and PS5 version of the game so that should speak volumes to the quality of the experience. Can't wait to play the sequel.