Gwyndolin

If you haven't played the 1st Chapter, please look into/play that first as this is a direct sequel taking place immediately after. So, for those who played the 1st Chapter and was awed by it, I'd say just stop reading and jump right in and have a blast. For those who played 1st Chapter and thought it was good but kind of slow and therefore hesitant to get into 2nd? That's valid too but I'll just say that, 1st Chapter is like the first 40% of an epic fantasy novel where it didn't even get to the climax yet. 2nd Chapter is the payoff. Does it mean it's no talking, all high-stake, all action, all the time? Not really, but kind of! In terms of gameplay, it should be a straight upgrade because one of the biggest complaints of 1st Chapter is the limited party members, where half the game you had control of only the two protagonists. In 2nd Chapter, other than the prologue, you are pretty much at full party size the entire game. There's a 10+ hour demo that carries over save data to the full game, so unless you straight up hated the 1st Chapter, it's worth checking out.

Was a 10 four years ago, still a 10 now. It's just $10 for people who already has it...just treat it as a $10 DLC. If you want to buy the original PS4 version for $15 used on ebay or whatever, nobody's stopping you either. Anyway, TLOU2 is quite a depressing game, and it's probably one of the only excellent games that I have trouble replaying. This remaster came with No Return roguelike mode which solves that problem, it feels like mercenary mode from RE4, but roguelike.

Widely recognized as the peak of Trails series, and I couldn't agree more despite it not being my personal favorite (that would be Sky: SC) because the writing is top-notch and the music is freaking DOPE. Now, do you need to play the games before it (Sky Trilogy, Trails from Zero) to get the most out of it? Preferably, yes. But you should play those games anyway because those are also phenomenal games in their own right.

Forgot to review this masterpiece, but there's really nothing much to say except for it being the best game of 2018. I played it on Give Me God of War mode because I felt like I was a badass and I thought i was good at action games. First trash enemy / tutorial fight killed me like 8 **** for reasons unknown I chose to tough it out all the way through the end, defeating the optional boss after 4 hours of retries. Any game that is able to make me go through such challenges without giving up, giving in, or negatively impacting my impression on how fun it **** just overwhelmingly exceptional in my book. I'm not even a die-hard fan of GoW series, only played 1-3 and one of the portable ones that i don't remember the name of. So i wasn't very hyped about this game at **** I gotta say this game makes me very hyped for a sequel. I find it interesting that it balanced storytelling so well with its gameplay so I'm hooked from 2 different angles...very much like my other favorite game - The last of Us. 100% i like!

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is yet another successful creation of Ninja Theory, and is probably the best manifestation of their game philosophy. The game showed a lot of focus and dedication towards its subject matter, which is something many current gen games don’t do enough. It went full deep dive into the subject and crafted the entire game around its main theme and it is brilliant because of it. While I do not want to write a synopsis on its plot, I recommend players to play with either surround sound or a headset. Pay attention to its audio and visual beauty. It also may help you understand the lore a bit if you have some knowledge of Norse mythology (if you played the 2018 God of War or watched MCU Thor movies, you should be ok). Most importantly, after you finish the game I strongly urge you to watch the Hellblade Bonus Features under the main title screen. It’s about 20 minutes long but it provides such valuable insight to the subject. It always pains me to get around to reviewing the combat aspect of Ninja Theory games after being so emotionally satisfied with everything else it offered. The combat felt a bit shallow. I noticed this flaw is shared by some of Ninja Theory’s best titles, the most apparent and recent example being DmC: Devil May Cry reboot. Whether it’s due to the budget limit or creative differences, the combat, while fluid and polished, just felt like it’s not on the same level as all of its other aspects. But please don’t get me wrong here, the combat is still very fun and engaging and by the time you finally notice its flaws it is already over. In conclusion I find Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice to be very enjoyable and memorable. While it does not quite reach the heights of titles such as God of War (2018), Bloodborne, or The Last of Us in terms of flawlessness, it is a valiant effort and sets the bar high for all other indie-AAA games.

One of the best in the Visual Novel genre. I think the most important question is how you look at this genre as a whole. If you absolutely detest reading or simply do not recognize the genre as "video game" then this is obviously not the game for you. This is a replay for me, because I've played the original on Vita a few years back. While knowing the plot this time around did put a damper on some of the surprises and twists, it was still very enjoyable. I have watched the anime as well but it felt like they added more original animated scenes? Maybe it's just been too long. If you like Time Traveling stories, especially ones that seems to be a bit more grounded in reality (as real as a time travel story goes), give this one a try.

I feel like I've been told one of the biggest lies by game journalism. The game is a real chore to play. I never watch "Let's Play" videos and even I think I should have just watched the Let's Play of this game's story missions and probably felt better about the game than actually playing it. The game's beautiful and the attention to detail is **** at the end of the day, it's just not fun to play. Usually, I believe in rating a game by how well it executed its strengths, to be exceptional at what it tries to do, rather than trying to be decent at everything. But the caveat here is that, the weaknesses **** should not interfere with the enjoyment of its strengths. The controls/gameplay/quality of life elements for this game is a horrendous mess and to me that detracts from its merits in realism/visual/story, and to be completely honest with myself, I don't even think the story is that great. It is typical off the wall GTA nonsense trying to fit inside a realistic western shell. I was on board the hype train because i enjoyed Red Dead Redemption 1 very much back on PS3, so it especially hurts when it let me down. It's not all bad, I feel like it's a love/hate relationship when it comes to this game. In one moment I am in awe with the visual or amused by character interactions/dialogue, and immediately followed by frustrating controls and tiresome gameplay.

It is less of a Dark Souls game, more of a mix of Onimusha/Way of The Samurai with loot mechanics of a Diablo game. But since the public loves the Dark Souls comparison, I will compare them. Compared to Dark Souls and Bloodborne, that game lacked the following: 1. Music - I really miss the heavy orchestral music of Dark Souls and Bloodborne...they were part of what made boss battles so epic in those games. This game's music is a huge miss for me. 2. Enemy Variety - In a game that revolves around memorizing enemy attack patterns, you need variety. Game simply lacks that. 3. Challenge - The design heavily favors the player. You are about 3x faster than most of the enemies, the game breaking part is that you can backstep extremely fast which renders most enemy skills useless since they get baited really easily. Bosses, even the dual bosses in New Game+, were very manageable. The game simply isn't that demanding in terms of how much focus/practice needed. That can improve with the DLCs but that's a separate review. All this is before even considering the fact there are simply so many in-game tools you can utilize to break the game such as Sloth. 4. RNG - After putting many hours in games like Diablo, Torchlight, Borderlands, I just don't appreciate RNG based loot grind as an endgame anymore. Others may love it though. Other than above gripes, the game is fantastic. The combat is more flashy and fluid than Dark Souls (at the expense of challenge), the huge amount of move set for each weapon type, the japanese-history based fantasy setting, they were all very well done in my opinion. In general, it is neither better nor worse than a Dark Souls game, just very different and refreshing.

I highly recommend playing FC and SC before the 3rd as it is a direct sequel. That said, the 3rd's format is a bit different from FC and SC. It is almost like one giant dungeon crawler. This dungeon has "doors" that leads to different parts of Liberl. Despite the new formula, the narrative is still among the strongest in any JRPG/RPG, the gameplay is a step up from FC/SC, featuring the largest cast of playable characters. And as always, music by JDK never fails to impress. Do note that The 3rd does not seem to directly propel the overarching plot of the Trails series, because its main role is to wrap up the Sky chapters while getting the audience interested in what's to come. What it does deliver is the following: 1. Kevin's personal story. 2. Additional depth/detail to every main character in the Sky Trilogy. 3. Additional depth/detail to the world of West Zemuria. 4. A lot of foreshadowing to future installments (Zero, Azure, Cold Steel) You can think of it as a playable Collector's Databook for your favorite manga series, but with its own self contained story.

Persona 5 is the perfect JRPG - if you don't mind heavy dialogue and traditional turn based combat. If i'm to nitpick, then I'd say the dialogue in the game is a bit repetitive, just like persona 4 was. I find this in many JRPGs. People often repeat themselves. That's about it. Fusing persona, the strategic combat system, and the sim elements are all very addictive. Topped with the most flashy and stylish aesthetic I've seen in a game... I can see myself playing this game for 200 hours at least.

Played this back to back with The Ringed City and to be honest, I liked this one more. The crows are excellent enemies and so are the Viking looking dudes. The optional boss was decent but too abuse-able due to the pillars. Sister Friede is one of the best boss fight I've had in the series. However, it is way too short...I can understand the underwhelming reception it got. And apparently no one plays Undead Match?? I tried to queue and can never find a game. So that's like half of the DLC content is dead.

This DLC really rubs me the wrong way with some of the mechanics and design. But it was an overall good experience. Half the DLC was "run from cover to cover" puzzles that just felt super gimmicky. The spongy optional boss was also just straight up exhausting and reminded me of Ancient Dragon from DkS2. On the bright side, the final boss was really spectacular in terms of its moveset, even if he was probably one of the easiest bosses in the game. The Ringed Knights were pretty fun to fight. The repeatable boss fight / covenant can be fun but at the same time can get extremely imbalanced, frustrating, and toxic. I just don't think the conclusion of a series should be filled with experimental ideas, instead it should focus on what they have been so successful at. As for **** new Twin UGS is awesome to use and scary to fight against so it may need some balancing, although it's kind of early to tell. Will try to adapt first before screaming for nerf.

It's not just genre mashups that makes this game a masterpiece, it's the perfect blend of **** serenity and adrenaline fueled excitement. Yoko Taro + Platinum Games is definitely a marriage made in heaven.

Greatest DLC content. Probably in the same league as the Witcher 3 DLCs in quality, but not in length. Going into this as in NG+++ made the difficulty a bit weird. Most people had trouble with Orphan but I had most trouble with Laur___. 4 of the 5 bosses were extremely memorable in their own way, and while the size of the content limits the level design creativity, it still offered many little secrets and rewards. The DLC further consolidates my belief of Bloodborne being the best PS4 exclusive pre-2017.

Finished the campaign with my friend over the weekend and we both enjoyed it. When it comes down to the core 3rd person cover shooter genre I think this series has the best mechanics and most action packed. Even the story is entertaining, like a fun summer action movie. One of the best games on Xbox.

I went into BoTW with a lot of skepticism. But the game **** it within the first hours. Poured 50+ hours into this game, finished the main story and a lot of side stuff, but not nearly complete. I don't think I will ever complete it but that's fine. It is the first open world game that I can put down and pick back up easily just to simply explore and marvel at its offerings. I recognize its weaknesses, such as the lack of music, mediocre storytelling and voice acting, and simplistic combat (with insanely easy bosses). But none of that really bothered me because exploring is just so fun in this game. The experience reminded me of MGSV, where I think the gameplay carries the game. In my opinion games should not be reviewed on how well rounded it is, but on how well it executes what it sets out to do.

I guess I just don't get it. Maybe it'd be better with weed. Gave it a 5 because it looks like they at least tried to put together a sandbox. And it did get maybe 1 or 2 laughs out of my friends.

It's interesting how pricing can affect how a game is reviewed. Back when this game was first released, the biggest complaint was that it was not worth the full price tag of $60. That's kind of strange to me in the way that they can give 90+ ratings to 3 hour indie games priced at $20, yet completely trash a 9 hour, $60 game. But I digress, let's get on with the review: Graphics - 10. It blew my mind. This game is 2 years old but it is the best looking game I've ever played to date. Gameplay - 7. Plays kind of like a grounded version of earlier Uncharted games. For the most part it is a cover shooter, and for certain scenes it plays like a Telltales game with a lot of simple QTE. Sound - 9. Excellent voice acting. Great music. Story - 8. Maybe because I really like the setting. Maybe the graphics and voice acting made it appear better than it is. I found the story and its characters very enjoyable. The ending felt like it was paving way for a sequel and thus did not satisfy me as a proper conclusion. The game took me around 9 hours to complete on highest difficulty setting. Overall I find the game to be a great single player experience. A marvelous game that was simply priced too high on release.

Online reviews are so bandwagony these days so I bought this game to see if it's just stupid hype or if it's actually any good. Turns out, this game is freaking good. My review is based on campaign alone. However, I watched gameplay videos of the MP and it looks like something I would be addicted to. So if you are looking for awesome multiplayer experience just watch a few games online and decide. I prefer it over all of the recent call of duties because of the skill based movement, the game-changing factor of Titans, etc. As far as campaign goes: +Gameplay wise, I have to say it's probably the most fun I've had in an FPS. Yes, even more so than Doom 2016, although they play completely differently. Pilot movement is fun and fluid, gunplay is tight if not a bit generic, level design ranges from simple to spectacular. Titan battles are really fun and Titan designs are awesome. +Graphics, the indoor environments are nothing too special but the planet Typhon portrayed in Mission 1 is gorgeous. +For trophy hunters this is one is probably very easy. -Too short. -The writing isn't spectacular, very average. BT is cool though. This is a very quality game released at a bad time of the year.

I'm assuming most of the dissatisfaction of this game came from 1.) how Modern Warfare Remaster is packaged, 2.) the multiplayer, and 3.) the jaded CoD players that has played every CoD as it came out... Well, none of those negatives bother me since 1.) I picked up the Legacy edition for $42 so a brand new game with a great remaster together for $42 is worthwhile.2.) Don't care for Multiplayer at the moment. 3.) Haven't played a CoD since Modern Warfare. My review is pretty much of the campaign and zombie mode and I have the following pros and cons: Campaign: +Characters are for the most part pretty good. Ethan especially. +Space combat is quite fun. +Hacking bots is fun. =Story is a bit bland. Although it had some great moments. =Aerial combat is fun but can get repetitive. -Levels are a bit too choreographed, but that is how Call of Duty games are. This can be good I guess because it flows like a continuous playable movie. Zombie ++Local co-op, there's just not that many split screen co-op anymore in this genre. I applaud them for including this mode. 8/10

Definitely one of the best titles on the PS Vita. If you like Action RPGs you should definitely check this one out. Fast paced hack and slash gameplay that is fun from beginning to the end. The soundtrack is great, it made exploring the maps more fun than it already is. Story is decent. I'm a story-oriented player so I must say its strengths does not lie in the storytelling. It's not really bad or anything, it just isn't the main selling point. As for graphics, it's fine and there was not any frame rate drops that I can remember. If there was it was probably minor and rare.

Weakest of the trilogy for me, sadly. I was very excited for it. I loved 999 and its pseudo science that blurred reality and fiction. It felt creepy and gave off an uneasy vibe. VLR went a bit more into the sci-fi realm, dealing with time and multiverse which is a bit less interesting to me but it was still well constructed and it did an excellent job setting up for a grand finale. ZTD went just too far, to the point it became shonen towards the end, not that shonen is a bad thing, it's just not consistent with the tone of the prequels. I also felt kind of cheated when I found out what the writers meant when they said "everyone from the previous game will be in ZTD": They were mentioned, VERY briefly, in about 1 sentence...that's it. Actually it felt like ZTD scrapped a ton of material that VLR alluded to in general. The writing of the characters also took a hit in this **** example would be Junpei's character is an inconsistent mess, 1 second he is grumpy, and apathetic, next he's doing humor, then he's emotional...make up your mind! I can understand if you act completely differently from the first game but try to at least stay consistent within the same game. Sure, I still liked the puzzles, I still liked the flow of the game where you gradually piece together the story. The music is still excellent. But at the end of the day, the bulk of the game is the narrative and as with any visual novel type of games, the game lives and dies with how the player enjoys its story.

Firstly, play Trails of Cold Steel 1 first before **** it picks up right where it left off. Preferably, play Trails in the Sky FC and SC, available on PSN or Steam before playing Cold Steel 1. Cold Steel 2 jumps right into the action. All the set up is pretty much done in Cold Steel 1 so this time around we have a pretty clear goal in mind. The formula is obviously different from Cold Steel 1 due to story circumstances. I don't really want to get into details about the story as it spoils Cold Steel 1. You will be disappointed if you are expecting major overhaul to the graphics or combat. Graphics remain the same, and combat has a few new additions but nothing major. Some really overpowered Master Quartz are in the game so if you want a challenge in the late game, stay away from those steroids. The music is still phenomenal, at this point you can safely assume Falcom JDK makes top tier music. Dubbing still mostly pretty good, from what I can see so far no translation errors, as expected of Xseed. It is kind of a shame that the very end of the game spoils some major stuff from Trails of Zero and Trails of Azure, which are not localized in the West yet at time of this review. After some debate, I would say skim(or just skip text) through the Epilogue/Gaiden chapters when they talk about Crossbell so they don't leave too much of an impression, this way by the time Zero and Azure comes out in the West hopefully you'd have forgotten all about it...

400+ hours into Witcher 3. It's sad to think there's no more expansions and probably no more Witcher ****'s a game that made me go astray from my usual gaming patterns 1. I don't usually go back and boot up a game I already beat twice for its DLC/Expansions. 2. I don't usually have patience for open world, Elder Scroll-esque games. Blood and Wine is probably the most impressive DLC I have ever seen. 40~50 hours of content, whole new map, exciting quests and new gameplay mechanics, and the most beautiful landscape/scenery. If you like vampires, wine, knights and fairy **** will enjoy every second of this adventure like I did. Thank you CDProjekt Red for being so dedicated to your work, almost every ? on the map serves as a reminder for how detail oriented you guys are.

I don't really get all the hate for this game. Gameplay wise this is a step up from Awakening. The story is bad but it's not like Awakening was much better. Character banter is still entertaining. My Castle is a great feature for casuals like me. I don't really get the feeling that I'm only getting half or 1/3rd **** either. This game lasted me almost 90 hours. And that's just playing on Hard/Casual (No death run of course but that's nothing to brag about when you can manipulate RNG to an extent by using Battle Save)....hardcore FE players probably log hundreds of hours retrying maps on Lunatic/Classic.

Very addictive. Best enjoyed with friends. Every hero plays completely different and they're all very fun once you get the hang of them. OK that's all folks I'm going back to play some more.

Real review coming soon for now I'm just gonna say this User Score is being trolled very hard by bitter xbox fangirls. Console Wars ****, now the PS4 fanboys are going to retaliate when Gears of War 4 comes out, I expect User Score of like 4.5 since there's more PS4 owners and they can be way more vicious. Anyway, it's pretty safe to ignore User Reviews when the average Critic Reviews is 94 after 80+ reviews. When a huge anticipated exclusive game comes out and let critics review the games early, expect a lot of bitterness and troll upon release. I'm not finished with the Story, mostly playing Multiplayer, and I gotta say this game deserves at least a 90 purely from design and technical aspects, and can go up to 100 depends on how much you appreciate its story. It's great seeing Uncharted 4 inheriting so many good qualities of The Last of Us which imo was the best game of the last decade.

If you liked the previous Dark Souls games, you will like this one. If you did not like them, you still won't... In fact, out of the entire Soulborne series, this game probably has the most punishing first 5 hours. Even as a vet I can sense that the developers are trying their best to mess with our expectations. Returning fans who missed a few Dark Souls / Bloodborne games may be discouraged from the first 5 hours and think things like "Oh man I might be too old for this series", well, IT GETS EASIER so press on my Sunbro! As always, don't expect a lot of exposition in this series, the story is basically what you can figure out from the bits and pieces of lore you find in the game. NPC Questlines are therefore vague and you can easily void questlines and the damage is irreversible until your next playthrough. I highly recommend using fextralife online wiki to get the full experience without trial and error for hundreds of hours on your own, unless of course, that is your thing. The music, again, is nonexistent unless you are at your home camp, or during boss fights. None of them are memorable, that doesn't mean it's bad, it's mostly because you are too focused trying to fight/survive the bosses to pay too much attention to the music. They do make the fights feel epic though and every piece is fitting. As for difficulty, I gotta say Bloodborne is still harder due to its core combat mechanics being more reflex/muscle memory based. However, you CAN make it harder than Bloodborne for yourself if you do a no-shield, no-cheese run. PVP is still the same ol' Dark Souls pvp. I like it enough to do it for Covenant rewards. Only gripe is the new Covenant system for some of the covenants. It's fundamentally flawed, and on top of that I think the matchmaking for them is currently broken. It effectively locks me out of Platinum because I can't get auto-matched...with the only alternative being grinding in PVE at low drop rates which isn't a very fun way to go about doing it. I mean, I see why they have the low drop rates, so they could get more people to participate in **** when the matchmaking is barely working it's just bad all around. All in all, this game is great and is worthy of being the swan song of the series, and the finale reminds us of all we have achieved in the series.

Reviewing based on 130 hours played of Early Access. Pros: - Beautiful and colorful environment/maps. - Phenomenal music. - A ton of different classes to mix and match for every Class tree. - Great controls especially with a controller. Cons: - Linearity that is uncharacteristic of the MMO genre. Unless you purposely stray from the efficient way of leveling, you will find your characters doing the EXACT same playthroughs. - Lack of fun or challenging content, the fun you experience mostly comes from the satisfaction of your character growth, admiring cool looking maps, and enjoying the music. - Game's story and quests are either just decent or really boring. Many players skip through the text, but for people who care about the lore and stuff, there isn't much here that's worth your time. Still, good effort. Game has potential to be better after some formula adjustments, but even then, its old-gen design philosophy is simply no longer to my liking. (Old MMO Philosophy - Limited content but stretched artificially to give the game longevity. i.e. hours upon hours of grinding for 1 level. "Lazy" but efficient way to keep players in the game. Modern MMO Philosophy - Keeps the game alive by constantly adding more content. Requires a lot more work and commitment from the developers.)

Thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. I have rated each game individually and the average score is 9.33, so a 9 it is for the whole package. As a visual novel / logic adventure hybrid, it definitely stands toe to toe with the best out there such as Danganronpa and Zero Escape series. The beautiful part about visual novel based games is that they age very well so although Ace Attorney is an older series of games, it stays competitive with contemporary competitors. It is very different from Danganronpa and Zero Escape games in its atmosphere. Danganronpa and Zero Escape always had this grim and dreadful atmosphere and premise, whereas Ace Attorney is a lot more lighthearted and offers a ton of laugh out loud humor. Doesn't mean its a kiddie game, after all, you are a defense attorney dealing with constant murder cases. Great characters with great dialogue, well drawn art and very good music. Pretty much everything you need in a visual novel to have a good time. If you are looking to get into Ace Attorney series, this trilogy is the place to start.

I agree with all the reviews that claims this is the best of the trilogy. I do want to point out that part of its beauty is because it flows so well plot-wise from the prior games and utilizes returning characters to their fullest potential. It had the best pacing, just when you are kind of exhausted from 2 rather long (but fun, with extremely fun and charming characters) cases, you get a breather chapter that sets you up for the finale, and once you reach the finale the game masterfully weaves all main plot threads together and lays out the most beautiful case in the series. Gameplay is the same as game 2, psyche-locks are still in. The game just had a slightly better logic flow than prior games, although some people may interpret that as the game getting 'easier'. Some of the music are remixed and changed, and to me I think they're the best of the trilogy. It just feels really awesome in the court room when I find a big contradiction and that satisfying tune starts playing...

Went into this game expecting it to be worse than the original, due to the reviews...came out of it thinking it's just as good. Great new characters, more 'lol' humor, relatively shorter cases with less fumbling around at the investigation parts, and the final case has got to be one of the best in the series. Only gripe is that the difficulty is a bit more harsh than the original, so I had a few game overs that took quite a few minutes to get back from since the text skipping is pretty slow. Not sure if it's new or my game is bugged on 3DS but my health bar didn't even replenish during court recess... Don't skip this one if you liked the first and is skeptical about playing the 2nd one from reading the ****'s worth the time. Plus, it makes the 3rd game even more enjoyable than it is.

Life is Strange is much like the Telltale games, minus all the quick time events, and you have the ability to easily redo choices via the core game-play mechanic. Story-wise, it is very 'chill' in the first few episodes, which could be a bad thing for certain audiences but for me it was an unique experience. This is the first game that made me want to **** the main character lay in bed with the sun in her face and listen to music for minutes before pressing that button to make her get up. It's all so peaceful and serene. At the same time, it is grim, dark and even straight up creepy. Very well written characters and script, wonderfully delivered by the VAs. Not much else to ask for in these type of games. If you don't hate interactive drama type of games, give this game a shot.

As an interactive visual novel, Ace Attorney is up there with the rest of the greats like 999/Danganronpa. Interesting, likable characters, catchy music, intriguing murder cases, often laugh out loud funny dialogue...this game has a charm that is simply irresistible to me, someone who is 15 years late to the party. Being a game first released in 2001 naturally it is a bit dated, mechanically. The text skipping is very slow, the saving is restricted, and no conversation log. None of that bothered me too much.

If I played this back in the 90s it would be near perfect. I would've been a patient kid with a lot of free time and not a lot of games so I could easily look past the unskippabe scenes, excessive backtracking, time limit, etc Heck I would have probably found the Groundhog Day concept to be amazing and mind blowing. Controls were ok for the most part, swimming was pretty awful, camera angles while swimming is atrocious. Zelda franchise's strongest point- dungeons, took a backseat. With only 4 dungeons, all of which are rather remarkable, it just wasn't enough. The atmosphere was good, the amount of content, along with the variety of masks made this game a lot more in depth than its predecessor. I loved this game a lot at first, as I kept on playing I was repeatedly annoyed by one factor after another...I didn't feel like I was even playing a Zelda game anymore. So overall, It is a meaty game that does so much right, but the cumulated annoyances made the journey rather frustrating. Unlike OoT or ALBW, this is one game where I won't revisit. However, I am glad I got to experience this game, and I finally understand the love for it. Because if you don't let the above mentioned flaws frustrate you, you have a well crafted, massive and detailed Zelda game.

Good fun, short and sweet... and a bit scary. I like interactive movie games when they are done well. Telltales' TWD, TWAU,TFTB and Heavy Rain are some of the best games, yes I said games. The best part about the game is that, it's not revolutionary in anyway, it basically just takes existing tropes and make them work. You start the game kind of cringing at it, thinking like "is this one of those cheap homemade college horror movies with teenagers having sex then **** turns that's almost what it is, except a lot better. I had a blast playing it, wife had a great time watching it.

First Naruto Storm game. Went beyond my expectations. Story Mode makes me want me to reread the entire series, and I wasn't even that huge of a Naruto fan. Some of the action/fight scenes were just done so perfectly, it really puts the anime to shame.... The huge roster consisting of pretty much everyone in the series may be pretty intimidating and confusing to an average person but perfect way to end the series for their intended audience. It's a very casual fighter but has enough depth to be entertaining and challenging. It's not intended to be an E-sports candidate. There are some frame rate drops during the 1 vs mob fights in the story mode, not game breaking but noticeable. It's a 9/10 for me because I think while it doesn't really standout as a fighting game, it sets a new standard for the anime fanservice fighting game subgenre. I didn't take points off for the netcode issues because I play with my friends locally so it's really not an issue for me, and to be honest the few matches I played online weren't bad so I think it varies from people to people.

Excellent 2D Adventure. Puzzles/Dungeons were very enjoyable and exploration is fun and rewarding as there are plenty of things to collect. Having fast travel and early access to tools made the pacing much better than older games. Great music as usual. My only gripe is that it's a bit way too easy especially if you are familiar with the genre. Adjustable difficulty right off the bat should really be considered in future games like this. The bosses would have actually been challenging if they actually did significant damage.

This is probably one of the best collaboration project ever. It's a Telltale game so you gotta know you are in for more of an interactive movie experience, if you go in with this understanding you are going to have a blast. It's best to marathon this series through in a day or two, as the chapters can be too short to satisfy you otherwise. The characters are all very charismatic and interesting. The directing is awesome, some scenes were just jaw-dropping good. It's not a perfect 10 because I feel like certain parts near the latter half of the story felt a bit rushed and could be handled better, and the final chapter had some frame rate issues (but man what a great finale).

As someone who isn't much into EO-style dungeon crawlers and generally did not like what Persona Q did to the characters, I still finished it because the labyrinth designs are for the most part very good and persona fusion / combat is addictive as always. Music is very strong too. A good mix of old and new. Really kept me going in the last 2 dungeons. The plot isn't strong and is heavily back-loaded. The last 5 hours or so is cute though. The character interactions get repetitive and my favorite characters are dumbed down versions of themselves. Combat can be challenging if you are new to Persona series, but on the other hand if you know stuff the game can pretty much be broken. That applies to almost every RPG game though so it's not really a flaw, just pointing that out. Overall, I'll say if you like EO series and Persona series, this is the game for you.

An indie game that's intelligent, atmospheric, immersive, and breaks the fourth wall. You have to be tolerant to some light puzzle solving and look past its visuals to get the best experience. It's around 4 hours long but it's littered with secrets for you to revisit and find. Keep playing until you get 100% achievement if you want to see all the content. It's only $5 on steam, totally worth it if you are up for some mindfuggery.

This is my first Fire Emblem game and I think it's probably one of the finest strategy RPGs in existence. The essence of the game lies in the challenge and the importance of strategy. Lunatic(+)/Classic settings might be a bit overkill and is geared towards hardcore FE players, but Hard mode provided a casual like me the challenge I needed. I spent more time thinking about how to keep my units alive and win the battle than "how to reap most rewards and make my guys OP" like in Disgaea It doesn't have nearly as good of a plot as FFT, its main characters aren't as colorful and charming as Disgaea, but it doesn't really fail on those fronts either. While the story is only serviceable, its hundreds of optional character interactions has a lot to offer. The localization was great. For newcomers that likes the strategy genre, I recommend putting it on Hard/Casual. Classic is kind of pointless for perfectionist/completionists as most people restart the battle once they permanently lose a character. Casual saves you a lot of time and frustration in that aspect.

I'm not going to talk about the game, it's best for you to go into it blind. If you like story-driven RPGs and can look past 8bit graphics. This game is an absolute must play. It has all of the successful elements **** story driven RPG, but condenses it into a 10~15hr game. (8hr per playthrough for me) The ability to marathon through it in 1 to 2 days is actually a key reason that it is so memorable. I went into this game with skepticism, now that I've played it twice I regretted not playing it sooner. So much love was put into the creation of this game, you can feel it from the moment you begin until you see the short credit list after the ending. Masterpiece.

Trails of Cold Steel is the 6th game in an ongoing "Story JRPG Series" made by Falcom. However due to the fact that the game is somewhat current gen compared to the earlier games, this game may very well be the very first Trails game for many. That is fine because Cold Steel marks the beginning of the 3rd story arc of the Trails series and it is perfectly fine as a starting point. For those who are new to the series, think of this series as the JRPG version of a visual novel. The series has mastered the trifecta that many JRPGs this generation lacks: Characters, Setting, Plot. The gameplay and combat aims to complement the above strengths, it never gets in the way and takes a backseat but still manages to differentiate the series from visual novels by being very entertaining and somewhat addictive. The bonus here is the music, Team JDK makes great music and Trails series has been very consistent in that aspect. Playing this game with the sound off in public is not a cool thing to do. While this narrative-focused approach is not very popular in today's standards (compared to Tales of series that focuses much on combat, and XCX which focuses on exploration and combat), but it doesn't try to be. It has one cute little ambition: to create the most well written, continuous JRPG series. It is doing a bang up job at it so far. For those who have played Trails in the Sky games, expect the same quality of writing, lovable cast, and the level of depth as those games with a few changes: Firstly, this entry is the first "3D Transition" of the series featuring 3D Character models and abundant voice acting. It is nicely done and it will not take you long to get used to it. Another difference is strictly limited to this episode, and that's the school setting. While it really wouldn't work any other way for the sake of the story, the school setting can feel too formulaic and repetitive. A large contrast from Sky FC and SC's adventure style where you move from town to town, in Cold Steel 1 it is more like "Campus life -> Visit a town (via Train) -> Campus life -> Visit a town repeat", you will spend about 50% of the game on campus. You can definitely see some, no, a lot of resemblance to Persona in this entry. Lastly, Orbment is easier to set up and works slightly differently, trying to figure out what stacks in what ways is also pretty fun. As someone who has been in love with the series for the past decade and has been importing all of the games, I can say Xseed has done a great job on the localization. It is quite refreshing and worth another play through.

Truly an enjoyable experience. It really amazes me that this game originally came out 17 years ago. 17! I could only imagine how much of a mind-blowing experience it was at the time. The gameplay was way ahead of its time. What amused me was, though the story obviously was not intended to be its strength, it was nonetheless entertaining because it was probably one of the earliest game that dealt with Time Travel, and it dealt with it in such a simple and lighthearted way. Time skip / Time travel is often a very good way to develop characters, you can call it a cheat way of doing it, but it works, it gives the characters instantaneous growth and with little effort it can make the audience themselves try to fill in the 7 year gap with their own growth stories for those characters. Gotta say it was very well played whether it was intended or not. It's already an amazing game as it is, compound that with nostalgia, it's not surprising that fans often claim this to be the greatest game of all time. Worth my $40 and 30 hours, even in 2015.

There are so many good things to say about this game, but I could not bring myself to finish the game even after 2 seperate attempts (first one lasted 50 hours, second one lasted 80 hours). Yes, definitely got my money's worth, but as an RPG fan this is the game that I have the most mixed feelings about. The game did so many things perfectly. The vast and beautiful world, the outstanding soundtrack, a very engaging combat system, and an overall very intriguing plot. Think of it like Final Fantasy XII, but better executed in all of those areas. If those things are all that you need for a good time, play this game, it's definitely one of the best the JRPG genre can offer. "So what is your problem with this game?" Well, I happen to have exceptionally high standards when it comes to the writing in RPGs. I value good dialogue, character development, and worldbuilding more than anything. A lot of gamers don't even know what the difference between worldbuilding and 'having a big world' is. A beautiful stage play becomes dull when its stage actors are bland. An expansive world feels empty when its residents are shallow. So, the strongest points of the game, over time, became its most glaring flaws in my eyes. In most shorter, linear RPGs, I have an easier time dismissing boring characters and just speed through the plot and be done with it. I couldn't really do that with Xenoblade Chronicles, for this game, the gamer side of me wanted to explore and quest in this beautiful world, but at the same time it is not at all fulfilling. Almost all side quests are generic Free-to-play MMO style "kill 10 bunnies quest #6" "fetch plant quest #7", and there's just a crap ton of them. These quests would have been great if they actually had context, creating opportunities for character interaction between your party members, or some kind of side story that fleshes out the more intricate details of the world the game takes place in. Town NPCs across the realm of Xenoblade are for the most part, extremely boring and pretty much the only reason to talk to them is because most of them give you quests, and most of the time they're the aforementioned mundane tasks. The main characters are dull but I can't blame them, they had pretty awful lines and their actual character interaction / development scenes (which did little to help the matter) are locked behind something called the Affinity system. You gain Affinity between characters in battle, very slowly and it can get grindy and once you meet the required Affinity level between certain members, you have to go to specific spots in the world for these bonus dialogue scenes to trigger, some are well hidden. You also gain Affinity by completing side quests. On top of that, many side quests will not be available until you reach a certain "Town Affinity" which consists of you doing quests that helps the NPCs of the specific towns. Given how I felt towards the game's side quests, this was not a good thing. So basically, the cast is extremely shallow and soulless, and to make them less shallow and bland I needed to invest considerable amount of time on bad side quests. This type of design does not mesh well with me.

OK let's just get the ugly part out of the **** you are still playing Starcraft 2 for its story, I offer you my sincerest sympathy right now. It's worse than Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, because at least the former are so cheesy that it's funny...whereas the Protoss race is just so serious and boring throughout. OK now for the good parts that make it the best RTS in existence right now. Single-player Campaign - Best designed campaign missions. Cool campaign exclusive units and abilities. As someone who mains Zerg, the campaign's learning curve was perfect to introduce me to Protoss game mechanics. The CG remains Blizzard quality, which means they are extremely well done and fun to watch. A total contrast to the crappy story and dialogue. Multi-player Versus - 1 vs 1: I gotta say it's rough coming back, the last time I played SC2 competitively was 2010/11 during WoL. It's depressing going from remotely good (reached Diamond Rank 12 of my division after 250+ 1v1s) to a straight n00b. APM dropped from 100 to like 50... but I digress. The overall changes were very positive, it encourages more action rather than the old meta of "harass each other while building a 200/200 deathball" because you are forced to aggressively expand from the start. The beginning amount of workers went from 6 to 12 so your build orders will have to change, and it really enables players to pile on the aggression early on if they choose to, or if you are a Zerg, be really greedy and 3 hatch right off the bat. The new units breath fresh air into the game as well, you have to remember 1 new unit in an RTS game = many many new army compositions and strategies. Archon Mode: Fun alternative to your typical 2v2. It's actually pretty crazy what you can do with 2 mediocre players. Co-op Missions: Like Archon mode, it's another less stressful mode for less hardcore players. Some of these missions I feel like I'm playing Dota or something. On top of all that you have user generated custom games in the Arcade mode... In conclusion, this is the best RTS game available bar none and I am certain Blizzard will keep improving the multiplayer with updates and rebalances to the meta.

Hands down the best Visual Novel I have ever read. I'm not even a huge fan of sci-fi, especially Time Travel sci-fi, but this one just does it so well! Be warned, this visual novel has no 'game play' other than choosing replies to text messages and whether or not to make/take phone calls, these actions can trigger optional scenes and determine the ending you will reach. ++The writing is intelligent, humorous, and detailed. Can be enjoyed more if you are somewhat familiar with Japanese geek culture and memes (if not it's ok the game actually has its own little **** in its menu to explain some of the concepts). +The voice acting is some of the best I have ever heard. Sometimes I wish it wasn't so good so I wouldn't feel bad skipping the dialogue. Although the appreciation for it would have been way less if you are not familiar with Japanese voice acting. +The music is superb and really helps bringing out the emotions in the story. - One of the 5 Alternate Endings was quite awful and really rubs me the wrong way on many levels, but that's just one of the alternate endings. That is forgivable because the True Ending and the rest of the 4 Alternate Endings are satisfying. I highly recommend to playing the game first without any guidance, then after that, refer to the 100% Guide to reach the True Ending. The game took me around 50 hours, although I am a slow reader, listened to most of the voiced lines, and spent some idle time on thinking and learning some of the science-y concepts (completely optional, you're not gonna feel like an idiot and get lost in the story just because you don't understand some of the science concepts.) Again, if you like Visual novels at all, you must give this a try.

If you like traditional turn based JRPGs, this game is the best. The story, characters, music and most noticeably the world is simply unmatched. While I think Sky FC is already comparable to classics like FF6, 7, Chrono Trigger, Lunar: Eternal Blue... Sky SC surpasses that tier and set new heights on the genre. What makes this series so special? Well, the quality of its writing and also the sheer depth and volume of it. For example, each town NPC is handcrafted and their dialogues change as the story goes on, which makes the world feel alive. Many of them have their own story arcs or running gags that will make you want to talk to them for what they will say instead of purely for completionist purposes. Now, if they bother to give this much attention to random NPCs, you can expect an unprecedented level of detail for the main cast and story that puts even visual novels to shame. I strongly suggest playing through FC before this, otherwise you will be kind of lost in the story. This review is copy and pasted from my review on the PC version. Please note here that the PC version is overall the better experience because it can be updated and patched for translation errors, and it has better graphics.

My previous review sounded like a crazy fanboy spitting out nothing but unconditional love, so I'm going to change it a bit. First, let's be real, if you aren't into Traditional Turn Based Japanese RPG, then you won't like it no matter what you read here. The game looks and plays much like classics such as Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, **** with about 10x more emphasis on the story elements, and at times the amount of reading makes me feel like I'm playing a traditional Western RPG instead (Planescape: Torment comes to mind). If that much reading doesn't sound too intimidating for you, keep reading. By the way, this is the first game in a long series. As of this moment, 7 games have been released and according to the writers that is about halfway through the story. It's not as ridiculous as it sounds, because they are broken up in self contained story arcs within the continuous overarching plot. For example, this game is the 1st game of the first arc. As such, the story may appear to pick up slow for some players, not in a boring way, just means the 'plot' won't be revealed until pretty much halfway through the game. The first 10 or so hours is focused on introducing you to the world, its history, and its lovable cast. The writing is so expansive and detailed (and well localized), with the purpose of crafting a living world, to the point where after every major story event, the town NPCs would advance within their own story arc. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the Trails series and other JRPGs. As for the game play, I strongly recommend new players to play on Normal difficulty, this is not a game for you to prove that you got mad **** other words, unless you enjoy retrying the same battle over and over while thinking "it's not fair!", stay with Normal. It will still challenge you from time to time. The combat plays much like Grandia II, and the Orbment system reminded me of FF7's Materia system, sort of. Style of encounter is modern (meaning not "random battles" like FF6 or 7 but more like Lunar and modern JRPGs), the game does not encourage level grinding as the exp is scaled, basically it's very hard to be underleveled or overleveled. In short, while the combat in Trails in the Sky is not the main draw, it does not hinder the pacing of the game and can offer you some challenges. It has its place. Music is the other huge difference I see(hear) compared to other RPGs. As much as I love the music in this series, I can't speak for everybody. Go to youtube and listen to some Falcom JDK OSTs if you are curious. In conclusion, this game series restored my hope in traditional JRPGs, and it is the first of its kind in terms of its scale. I hope you will enjoy the game, and eagerly anticipate every released like I **** unlike how Harry Potter fans anticipated every book in the past. (So, I probably ended up sounding like a crazy fanboy again, but at least I think I made some sense this time around. )