Demostenez

Excellent new Digimon Story game! The quality of life improvements over Cyber Sleuth are very welcome. Story, voice acting, and gameplay are very solid. Overall, it could use a few more improvements (the Digifarm is still a little clunky), but I'm enjoying it!

I haven't played any Persona games, so I was a little concerned about the calendar system. I typically dislike games with any sort of time limit, but that wasn't really an issue. The story is well-told, with some good twists here and there. The worldbuilding was very well done, though I'm glad they included the memorandum section because there is a lot to remember. In fact, I feel that the memorandum could have had more info in it. The characters were all interesting and unique, bringing something different to the party. Combat was fun, though failing to dodge overworld attacks several times in a row and ending up in multiple fights where enemies go first can be irritating. Loved the music and the enemy designs. Taking inspiration from Bosch for the human monsters was great! Overall, while a few things could have been done a little better, this is my 2024 GOTY.

Great story and characters. I enjoyed all of the old-school JRPG elements and how they combined to make a fun and interesting game. I do think there could have been a few additions (shortcuts to certain places after you finish that area, for example), but overall I loved it.

FFXVI is a different Final Fantasy, but it was so fun. I thought the characters were very well-written. Clive was serious, but he also had a fun side to him, which FF protagonists don't always have. The combat was smooth, and I didn't really miss having other playable characters. Overall, best FF game we've had in a while!

Resurgence has a great story that starts out with a classic Trek diplomacy plot and ends up serving as a sequel to one of the first TNG episodes. The characters are interesting, though some are a bit unlikable. Unfortunately, the technical issues and gameplay brought the entire experience down. The controls felt stiff, and some of the quicktime event notifications didn't stand out. I encountered bugs throughout--everything from characters talking over each other or audio glitching out to visual issues like the playable character being replaced by a floating tricorder. I loved the style of the game, but it needed more polishing on the technical side. Hope to see more Trek games like this.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Played it for free on PS Plus, so I may be being a little more generous than I would be if I had paid for it. I only played the story mode because I enjoyed the **** Grid comics. Overall, the gameplay is fine, but the lack of a combo breaker is very annoying. The switching of characters between battles was a little disorienting. One battle would be Jason vs Goldar, then the next would flip it, which was unexpected. The story mode overall felt a little unpolished. There are a lot of characters locked behind pay walls, which is also annoying and makes the roster feel pretty small. It was a fun distraction for a couple days, but it wasn't free for PS Premium members, I likely wouldn't have paid for it.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Pros: Combat was fun, and I liked the Engage mechanic. Having the weapon triangle back was nice. I liked the design of the characters. Voice acting was good. Cons: it came out after Three Houses. The story and the characters felt less developed after the excellent work done in 3H. Some characters felt unnecessary and just there to pad the roster. I played all four 3H routes, but after finishing the last DLC, I don't know that I'll ever pick up Engage again.

Good DLC. I thought it was priced very well and enjoyed the story. There were a few areas of the map that felt oddly empty, and I would have liked a couple more ruin puzzles to solve and side quests. Overall, it was more Horizon, and that's never a bad thing.