Kenmei

I was in the minority back in the day when the original game came out as I never played it due to how poorly AC 3 was for me. I can now see why it's so revered in the modern landscape for gaming with how revolutionary the ship combat controls were for games that came after it. However, alot of other things with this remake just don't work for me and I'd almost recommend most people to just play the original game at this point. The story isn't that great, even if Kenway is a great main character. Narratively, the game is disjointed, feeling like it's forced to hit all the main points for the golden age of piracy in the 1700s. However those points just don't work for the overall story and don't really feel like they contribute to the overall story. They also changed up the combat from the old counter style system to the modern day one. With how poorly the camera works here, it doesn't mesh well with how things work. That's offset by the extremely awful enemy AI so it's almost a wash. However I can see why this game has earned the reputation it has all these years later. I just don't know if I'd recommend people play this version or the original at this point.

Star Fox is exactly what it says on the box. This is Star Fox....Again. In particular this is yet another remake of Star Fox 64, one of the best on rails shooters of all time. It's the 2nd remake, officially, by Nintendo, and possibly the 5th remake/remaster of the Star Fox franchise since it the original came out. For this one, it's still a 1:1 remake of the original Star Fox 64. There's no differences in terms of gameplay between flying, fighting, level design, and how to unlock harder levels and get higher scores. This game comes down to the upgraded visuals and presentation. As far as environments, this is the best looking Nintendo game I've seen on the Switch 2 so far. It's frankly beautiful and I never noticed any drops in FPS or graphical glitches throughout my various playthroughs. The new characters designs are pretty divisive, with all the characters being given new, hyper-realistic animal designs. It's not great but I started to warm up to it recently after having them in action so much. The updated lore though is probably the biggest change. There's a new cutscene between each mission now actually explaining why each level is important and gives each character a chance to really hone in on their new personality quirks that seem to come with their new designs. It really does work in my book but definitely not enough to seal the deal. Overall, for long time fans of the series, and 64 in particular, it feels like this is a no-brainer. Especially during the summer drought here for games. For new players to the series, I'd recommend getting Nintendo Online and trying out the original Star Fox 64 on there for the same price first before making the decision here. If you like that version of the game, especially one made 30 years ago, you'll definitely enjoy this. But I'm not sure how much the newer gaming crowd will like this, even with it being one of the best of it's genre of all time.

If I had written this review back when the game first came out, I would have probably given it a 7 as there was alot of stuff holding it back. Lots of quality of life problems, very confusing tutorials, and a poor story that was held up by a wonderful open world with tons of stuff to do, find, and search for in the open world. But, through quite a few updates from the developers, most of those issues are now gone and it's one of the most ambitious open world games I think I've ever played. Pretty much all the quality of life issue are now gone. Some examples upon release were not having a storage chest for all the items you find, very poor controls and explanations of how combat works. Even trying to find and use items in your inventory was a chore. Pretty much all these issues have been fixed, as well as having added a ton of new items, weapons, armor, etc. Things were fleshed out quite a bit and it's some of the most fun I've had with a game in a long time. The story is still a mess and basically not worth paying attention too. Even the developers have come out and said that it's pretty bad. But you really aren't coming here for that. The exploration and things to do really are wonderful and its so much fun to discover a new area or thing to do, even over 100 hours in. I really enjoyed this and I can easily recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest here.

I was a little hesitant about this when I heard it was being made by IO Interactive, who have basically only made 1 game over the past couple of decades with the Hitman franchise. I personally do not like Hitman at all due to it's janky nature and lack of depth to its story. Fortunately the story here is top notch, with great characters and a wonderful narrative that carry some of the gameplay issues it has here. I really enjoyed this being an origin story for Bond, something we never really have gotten before. It's fairly well done, even if Bond becomes a Gary Stu towards the end to justify some of the decisions he makes. But I was gripped from the beginning and it lasted all the way to end of the 10ish hour campaign. Knowing it's part 1 of a trilogy too makes me very excited for the future games to come here. Unfortunately it's gameplay still fall into the janky category for me. While it's been polished up from the Hitman series, its still an issue controlling and fighting with Bond. Plus this has to have some of the dumbest enemy AI I've seen in many years. Frankly it's horrible and needs a ton of fine tuning for the next game. But the story is good enough to cover for some of those issues and I now can't wait for the next one in the series and where they'll go from here.

Pragmata is one of the most video game-y video games I've played in a long time. That's not a knock against the game as it's fairly fun and innovative, once you get your head around the combat system and the mechanics. It's very methodical in its approach, having you basically solve puzzles in real time on the right hand side of the screen to make enemies vulnerable to hit. It can be very difficult when there's multiple enemies on the screen, and especially when you are playing on higher difficulties. But it works out pretty well for something so different. The main draw for most people though will be the father-daughter relationship between the main characters, Hugh and Dianna. While the story is about as generic as it goes and is basically there just to have something to do, Hugh and Dianna are the stars of the show and their found family thing is easily one of the most precious things I've seen from these types of games. Dianna is adorable and her mannerisms really set the stage for how well this works. Plus Hugh is the opposite of the tough dad stereotypes that have been around for several years now. He's caring and open and wears his heart on his sleeve. It's refreshing to play through. However the ending is full of plot holes and it's very sad to watch, especially knowing things that the game has told you a few times during it's run. No spoilers but knowing what happens at the end really turned me off to the whole story in particular. At the end of the day though Pragmata works and it works well. While the story and it's ending a real downers, just playing through it and going back to earn all the collectibles is real fun. I can easily recommend it, especially now while there's not much coming out for awhile here.

By far one of the best Rogue-like games I've ever played, Absolum does everything in its power to limit the problems that Rogue-like games can present and just make a fun and interesting beat-em-up game, similar to some of DotEmu's previous games like Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredders Revenge. The game plays almost exactly like those previous games, with it being a side scrolling 2D fighter that allows you to choose from 4 characters, all of which play very distinctly and are all interesting to use. The gameplay is some of the best out there, since they're so used to making these types of games. The Rogue-like elements implemented here feel like they were added onto the periphery to give the game a bit of a different look from all those other games. The amount of routes you can take to the final bosses and things you can discover is pretty high and I'm surprised with the amount of content that's here. Plus the game is super forgiving in alot of aspects, even going so far as to give you access to a menu that will allow the player to change almost all of the base values that pop up in the game. Like being able to change your damage output and even turn all the enemies attacks to zero, making your character invincible. Even if you do that though, beginning each new run is the point of the game, as it'll give you access to seemingly more and more items and locations for you to explore and more story for you to interact with. I beat the first final boss after a handful of playthroughs and a whole brand new area to explore, with new mechanics opened up for me, with a whole brand new final boss to fight. It's extremely well done and, as someone who usually hates Rogue-likes with a passion, seeing a game like this hook me as hard as this has is very fun and exciting. Dotemu is quickly becoming one of my favorites devs and I really hope they continue to crush it moving forward no matter what genre they choose to use from now on.

RE Requiem feels like a turning point for the series. After the detour that was 7 and 8 with Ethan Winters, RE 9 goes back to the series roots both literally and figuratively. The game is split between Grace and Leon as dual main characters. Grace's sequences are more horror related, while Leon goes full into the action portion of the game. It works out well for each of their playstyles and personalities. The story is a little lacking, with basically any and all reveals saved for the final ending. It doesn't do a great job of equally spacing out the story but it makes up for it with all the nostalgia baked into the game. I've heard it said that this the RE fans RE and it really makes sense. I had some technical problems that did hamper my experience. Playing on a PS5 Pro, the Ray Tracing made it feel like I was playing underwater and I had to turn it off completely. There were some graphical glitches as well that basically forced me to lower the settings on the game. When this is supposedly the game that should show off the power of the console, these kinds of problems just make it more of an issue. But, overall, I really enjoyed my time here. It's probably the best RE game I've played since the original RE 4 back in the day, and its a step up for the series.

Kiwami 3 is a baffling mix of decisions made by the developer to change things up because they seemingly could, while taking out a TON of content from the original game. I personally never played the original game myself but, knowing they took out 2/3rd's of the side stories, the bread and butter behind these games, almost made me ask for a refund immediately. Let alone their changes to the combat and progression systems would be bad enough. However, they decided to retcon the ending by allowing a character who originally died, to live at the end to, presumably, be a main player in later games. Which doesn't make sense at all, considering where Yakuza 4 starts out at, and the role that plays in the overall canon of the series. They've clearly decided that the current storyline that all the games have followed, including the most recent games starring Ichiban, are not up to snuff for them and are going to make wholsesale changes for this new reboot series, as they've already said this the last Kiwami branded game, but have also stated that the remakes will continue on in the future. Personally I don't feel great by their flippant ability to disregard the story, one of the better and intriguing ones to come from a Japanese developer. Plus their casting decisions are truly baffling here, knowing that one of the actors for a main character you see alot in the story has been accused of SA in the past and he tellingly has never denied it. I'm worried for the future of the Yakuza franchise. I feel like we really need a new Ichiban-style game next to hopefully wash away the stink behind this game and move forward with the franchise. Because I can't recommend this to hardcore fans of the series at all.

After the massive disappointment that was Daybreak 2, I was worried about Horizon's ability to bring me back into the franchise. Especially since its release in the West was after the Sky FC remake from last year might have stole its thunder. Fortunately it's one of the best games in the franchise and something that was refreshing for me to play. The game is helped out alot by splitting its main story into 3 separate arcs by bringing back two previous main characters and allowing them to handle some of the heavy lifting. Rean and Kevin work great here and, even though Van has more story arcs than the two of them combined, they were able to put some major story beats with the two of them instead of jamming everything onto Van, which was one of the biggest issues for Daybreak 2. The story also finally pays off some of the biggest moments from Daybreak 1 that 2 just seemed to forget about and, honestly, made Daybreak 2 seem fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, beyond it's ending, which is referenced multiple times throughout the **** while it ends on a cliffhanger, something that this series is known for, it's one of the better ones in my book and has me very excited for the next game in the series. Unfortunately, there's no indication of when that will happen, with Falcom already saying they are focusing on Sky SC remake for this year. I just hope that it's a simultaneous worldwide release for the next game in the series so no one has to wait for it. At the end of the day, this is a good bounce back for the Trails franchise and I'm glad it worked out after how bad Daybreak 2 was. It might be the 13th game in the franchise but it's still easy enough for me to recommend it.

I loved my time with the base game when it released last year and I was hoping for a good followup to that. Unfortunately what's here is fairly lackluster. All stories are just what if scenarios for 4 of the main villain factions you fight in the base game. The stories themselves are nothing to write home about and can be skipped through without incident. Unfortunately that's supposed to be the main draw to the title. There are a couple of decent moments in here but not enough to justify the 35 dollar price tag. The two new weapons are ok but not better than a couple from the base game. I would have liked to see them add to the story that was left at a cliff hanger right when the main game was just getting great. If you're just begging for more content here then I can probably recommend it. But it's hard to justify the price when the content just isn't that interesting.

I hope that the majority of the user reviews here aren't just trolling because this was announced before the game released. It's truly not a 2.3/10 score. While Z-A hasn't exactly turn heads and made things better for Pokemon as a whole, it's still a fun enough game that has some value, especially for Shiny hunting. The DLC is very extensive with a large number of Pokemon added, even if there's no new ones outside of the new Mega forms. Plus they added several mystical pokemon to catch for the first time, legally, in years. However things are extremely grindy and can make for long hours of just not getting what you need to actually get to the next part of finding the last pokemon you need for a collection bonus. That part alone makes things difficult but the fact that you have another grindy aspect while trying to get the best donut to open the correct portal, is very difficult. Overall Z-A has been a decent time but doesn't reach the new level that was set by Legends Arceus a few years ago. With this game being the start of Gen 10, and the mainline game almost certainly being released late this year, Pokemon is in desperate need of a decent overhaul from its usual formula. With all the monster catching clone likes that exist, it shouldn't be too hard. But the mainline game is where the biggest changes need to be made.

While Prime 4 is good and reminds me of the previous games alot, some truly baffling decisions keep it from being great and, in my opinion, the worst in the franchise. The gameplay is the highlight as it's the most recognizable from the previous games. It's a great FPS and harkens back to the days of the gamecube, in a good way. It's very fun and I have always enjoyed it. While there's nothing new added here, it's still fun and a good time to go back too. The story is an odd duck. All the previews made mention of the NPC's that were super annoying but they're not as bad as was previously mentioned. But their inclusion wasn't necessary frankly, and not something you expect from a Metroid game. The lack of a main villain is the worst part. The game actually has one but you'd never know that outside of the first and last missions as he's not mentioned a single time later on in the game. The days of Dark Samus or Ridley are long gone here. The open world is basically worthless for the overall game. It's a bland open world with barely anything to do and the inclusion of the new motorcycle thing was so not needed. Very clearly was added in to have something new and nothing else. It's a massive disappointment. Overall, for how long this game was in development, it doesn't come together well and doesn't make for a great addition to the Prime series. There's still a good series here and I'd be upset if this is the end of the franchise. I really wanted to like this more than I did but there's still some fun to be had by people who enjoy the franchise. But Nintendo would do well to re-release Prime 2 and 3 at this point to gauge interest in the series going forward. Especially since those were the best of the bunch.

Unfortunately it doesn't move the needle like Tsushima did for me. The gameplay is virtually identical, just replacing the stances with new weapons this time around. But with a much worse story and characters that are one note, I didn't connect with this game like I did with Tsushima. It's still enjoyable I'd say but there's no way I can recommend this over Tsushima. Outside a potential DLC saving it, this is a step back for a game that needed a little bit more from the gameplay side.

While I felt more inclined to complete this game than I did the first game, alot of the problems that that game had are still here. Things are very similar in that I didn't exactly care for the story or the characters for the most part. But the combat was fun and the flaws system was a unique spin on how you can build your character, even if you might screw yourself early on by not really knowing how to go about using a few you'll find at the beginning. While it still hasn't reached the "Fallout in Space!" level of quality I was expecting that the first game was seemingly promising, I'd still say it's worth playing if you have access to gamepass. It definitely isn't worth the 80 bucks microsoft wanted it to cost though thats for sure.

While it doesn't feel like it pushes the line much, there's still alot of fun to be had here. I really like the changes to combat and it has reworked several things that have been around for a long time in the pokemon games. The game does feel stuck in the past for its presentation and the story but, if you're boycotting this game and review bombing it because of the DLC being announced before the game released, you really shouldn't. There's still alot of fun to be had here and I enjoyed my time with it, and I will enjoy the DLC when it's released. It works well as a stop gap for the next main game to release next year.

Time Stranger gets whats most important right in the collecting and digivolving of the digimon in the game. Lots of quality of life changes have been made from Cyber Sleuth that makes things so much easier on the player, as most of the game will be spent within menus trying to level your guys up and trying to build the correct stats to get the best digimon in the game. I can't tell you how nice alot of these improvements are in the long run and made things so much simpler than anything Cyber Sleuth gave us. That quality of life change extends to combat too, as menus are much easier to read and it's much easier to tell who is weak or strong to what moves. Not all is great here though. The performance is absolutely atrocious. This is one of the worst running PS5 games I've ever played and regularly runs below 20 or even 15 FPS, even when there's very little on screen. This game is almost borderline unplayable at certain points in the story and it almost made me drop it at a few points. Doesn't help that the story is absolutely boring. It's filled with nothing tons of Anime tropes and horrible writing. Great voice acting can't save some of these characters from being boring and hard to watch. I admit to skipping through cutscenes I thought were getting too long before huge fights. Plus the story abruptly jumps to the final chapter when you least expect it and it really feels like a large chunk of the game was removed last second. The final boss was probably the best fight in the game, but getting there is a real chore. Overall, this game is desperate for a huge performance improvement patch, more than what they've already sent out. But it's collection aspect is top notch and anyone who liked Cyber Sleuth or it's side game Hackers Memory will love that aspect and will make you want more, despite it's poor story.

A remake of the first game in the Legend of Heroes saga of JRPG's, Falcom has really surprised me with how well this has turned out. Coming off the worst game in the franchise by far with Daybreak 2, a remake of the original Sky 1st chapter sounded weird to me and I didn't know how it would go. But those worries were quelled when I played the demo originally then the full game here. And it's wonderful. The changes made to gameplay, combat, and even the way the world is portrayed from the original game is top notch. The original Sky 1st from way back in the PSP days, it's a buggy and horribly designed game with a good story to carry it through the worst parts. Pretty much all of that has been fixed for this release and it's by far the best entry for newcomers to the series. But even if you have played the original game already, there's so much new here it feels like a brand new game to me. There are some translation errors, mostly dealing with this new publisher, GungHo, not carrying over terms and names that fans of the series have been hearing for over a decade now. Plus some of the voices fall flat at times, and don't really have the same polish that the previous games had. However people need to know that this is only part 1 of 3 in the first narrative of the first part of the saga. Falcom basically has to remake both the 2nd and 3rd chapters now. At least the 2nd since it's a direct continuation of this game, while the 3rd chapter is more stand alone. But I'm very impressed with how Falcom responded to the criticisms of Daybreak 2 and moved forward. While Daybreak 3 comes out in the west early next year, it was still made before this game so I don't know what to expect there but it gives me more hope then I had with the franchise before this that they know what they're doing.

I really wanted to like Borderlands 4 more than I did. The gameplay still feels great and something that the series seems to have perfected. But the story and characters are bland and, no matter how much Randy Pitchford tries to gas light people into thinking it, it runs poorly on pretty much every system. I had numerous slow downs, frame drops, and even 1 or 2 crashes playing on console. I can't even imagine how bad the PC port runs. And coming out at a time when all the big name games for the fall are releasing really doesn't do it any favors either. There is still fun to be had here but it's lackluster story and characters plus technical issues really drags things down for me.

While it offers more of the base game, which is a good thing, it feels extremely rushed and, as a result of that, very quick. Total run time feels closer to about 2-3 hours. Plus the ending just happens with zero fanfare that it caught me off guard. I really liked the base game and the story here feels like it was original made for that, but trimmed down heavily to fit a DLC window. I wanted to like it more then I did but it feels fairly disappointing for the same price that Silksong was, coming out on the same day. It's hard for me to recommend it because of that.

A game based entirely around the old school Resident Evil and other horror games from the PS1 era, Heartworm mostly works but falls short in alot of areas at the end of the day. You'll play it cause of the nostalgia of the fixed camera angles and tank controls. If you don't like those, then don't play this. The game can be a little unforgiving, especially in the final main level, which is almost a straight copy/paste of the Mansion from the original Resident Evil, with some minor variations. The plot here is sorta ok, even if I completely hate the main character. Things are made extremely vague for pretty much the entire game till the end, with it wanting you to do a full 2nd playthrough to see the true ending. Some of the puzzles are just beyond awful though, including a sliding puzzle that was just the biggest pain in the butt. I'm also astounded by how a game could have some of the better music I've heard in a long time, and some of the worst music I've ever heard period, especially in the last half of the game. It got so bad, I had to mute it at times to get through. Overall Heartworm does want it set out to do, be a nostalgia piece for the OG horror games on PS1. Alot of the stuff surrounding it is either mediocre or just straight up bad though. For a budget game, it's not so bad I'd say to stay far away from it, but really only the most diehard fans of the OG horror games will enjoy this.

Coming the **** and Nonery Games creators, this might be one of the most ambitious Visual Novel style games to ever come out. While the 100 different endings thing is the "joke" the creators came up with, alot of the routes actually are really well done and well told. All the characters here are well fleshed out and each have their own anime tropes built in but there's nothing here that's crazy over the top compared to each of the previous games casts. I really enjoyed most of my time with them, which is saying something since, if you did go for all the endings, you'll easily be hitting about 120-140 hours play time, and that's even with playing all the battles on easy. The battles were definitely the biggest issue for me in terms of how long they took and how hard they could be. Frankly, after a little bit, I just put them on easy so I could get through them faster. And I'm VERY fortunate that they added a skip battle feature for later run throughs if you had already beat it once. I would definitely not recommend going for each ending here. Things can be super tedious on some runs, which is something both of their previous games also suffered from. But I'd argue this is their best realized game they've each put out. I was hooked and, once I found the route for the true ending in the game, I was satisfied to go through some side routes to get the openers for the full ending. But, I know I'm missing at least 4-5 "main" route endings and I have no desire going back and finding them. I can definitely recommend playing this game for visual novel fans but I would heavily advise against going for 100% here as you'll lose interest in the game after awhile.

This is the game that the Switch 2 deserved to have on launch day. It feels very reminiscent of games like Super Mario 64, in that it's the consoles best way of displaying the new things that come with the console launch. The main draw here is the sheer amount of things you can destroy and go through. DK can smash basically anything in his way, with either his fists or another object and it's very fun. The game also runs tremendously well, outside of some very noticeable during a couple of boss fights. At the end of the day, this is what I wish I had on launch day. Those of us who don't play Mario Kart have been begging for something like this release and it lives up to all the hype I had for it.

Death Stranding 2 is my idea of what a good sequel should be. It took alot of the first games criticisms, made them better, while adding onto what already worked well enough in the first game. First of all though, the graphics are amazing. Even on a base PS5, this is probably the best looking game I've ever seen. It's quite wonderful. But the huge changes to combat, something that seemed just tacked onto the first game at the last second, works much better here. While the controls are much better for combat, there's a ton of new guns to use and items that make things much easier. Probably too easy at certain points but it's better then the first game in my book. And alot of the transport stuff is much easier to use. I was very impressed with pretty much all aspects of the gameplay. The story is ok. I'm still not a fan of Norman Reedus as an actor as I don't think he's very good but alot of the side characters are very well done. It especially helps since all of the character models here are absolutely amazingly well done and their facial expressions are top of the class good for the whole industry. Alot of the plot points mirror the previous game but, as a whole, it's just different enough to set it apart from the first game, if just barely. Overall this is a wonderful game and, in my book, redeems the first games shortcomings by quite a margin. The ending also leaves the door open for another sequel but would work very well if it was just the end of the series. There's a movie in the works for this apparently but we'll see how it goes. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who's even vaguely into adventure games like this, and even ones put off by the first game.

Very well done survival simulator with a very interesting hook of having to clone yourself to create more people to help you survive. Each new Alter is a living and breathing individual, with their own thoughts and ideas on how to do things. The voice actor who plays them all does a very good job distinguishing between each one and really makes you invested in keeping them all happy and alive throughout the journey. The game is very difficult already too so keeping them all happy and alive can be very difficult. My only complaint is that the game does a horrible job explaining some important things and how to collect some items. It also isn't afraid to "hint" that you should maybe make use of the several save slots to retry certain days now that you have a better idea of what happens that day. Not a fan when the game makes save scumming a legit tactic to complete it. You don't have to do that but it definitely makes things easier and they tell you that. Overall though this is a great game and it being on gamepass makes it an easy recommendation.

Being the only first party Nintendo game being released for the launch day of the Switch 2 (that's not a 10 dollar tech demo that's not free...), it felt almost like an obligation to buy this game with the system. I'm about as far away from being a Mario Kart person and barely play any of them, but I'm aware of their quality as a racer. This game definitely has a ton of polish and is probably the most extensive MK game ever released. With a ton of characters, karts, and outfits to unlock, I'd be shocked if any of the previous games even come close to this. The free roam is where you'll be able to earn the most of these items and it's fairly peaceful to drive all over the world, and even over some tracks, with nothing to worry about and going at your own pace. The quality here is pretty great and I'm not surprised they pushed this as the premium game to buy with console release, even going so far as to release a bundle for a reduced price of the game. However I'm dropping the score because of that price, as this is the start of the 80 dollar price point for games. Nintendo has let the genie out of the bottle and it'll never go back. It's a horrible trend they've started and one that hurts all consumers of video games. I'd give the game a 0 if that would make any difference to be honest. But I can admit this is a great game and the perfect title for the console launch. Even if it's not my style of game, I can recognize it's quality. It's a shame Nintendo's greed just upended the industry with the price increase.

You could basically copy/paste the description of some of the previous modern AC games and that would describe this easily. There's not anything here that's any new or original. The story itself is ok but seems to just abruptly end. I wasn't a big fan of either Naoe or Yasuke but they weren't terrible. It just feels like this is your standard Ubisoft AC game with barely anything that will stand out for most people. It's not techincally bad but it's just fairly boring and doesn't add much to the series.

While I can respect what the game is trying to do, I just couldn't get into this as much as I wanted too. There's some unique things here, including the setting and some of the more simplistic simulation elements that I enjoyed. But the world in this setting just isn't interesting. And once it became obvious that a very short game is trying to pad out its run time with 6+ endings, I just stopped after getting the first one. There's no real need to explore since each area is short and there's not much here outside of quest locations. I was satisfied with the short amount of time I put into this in the ending that I got, then watched the rest of them online. Being on game pass helps make this an easy recommendation to play but just know that the Fallout 3 comparisons the game is getting aren't helping out in my opinion.

It's hard for me to recommend this, even with how well the puzzles are and the atmosphere because of the Rogue-like elements. I personally had alot of the mysteries wrapped up fairly early but the extreme luck it takes to get the rooms you need to unlock other rooms and stuff just isn't fun for me. I got about 80% of the way through and just put it down because of the sheer luck you need to actually complete this. No matter how good your game is, if it requires this much luck to actually complete it, especially if you already know most of the answers its trying to tell, well thats just not a fun game. I'm tired of just praying I get all the various doors needed to complete the game. Especially when all I needed was one room to spawn and didn't see it once in 5 straight runs. That's just not fun and is the main reason rogue-likes are not my favorite games. If you get lucky and get through it all in a few runs, it can be a very good time. But the amount of luck it takes to get there is beyond terrible at times.

While I really enjoyed the story and the method in which its told, through a combination of its genuinely excellent music and its fairy tale style magic, the very bland combat and its art style, of stop motion animation, sets it back for me. Since it's on gamepass it's an easy download in my opinion but one of the better story telling devices on the console would have been an easy recommend for me if not for the combat and art style.

Been playing for a few years now and this is probably the most complete version of the game I've played since I started. I'm mostly an offline player, either through Diamond Dynasty or Road to the Show. RTTS got a huge upgrade with the college teams being added into the game. It's a decent distraction for the beginning but slowly morphs back into the usual set up. DD has had some upgrades with a brand new mode and changes to the card sets. They've reset the stats for most cards and have promised a slower ramp up time throughout the year for cards. We'll see how that goes but seems like a genuine upgrade so far, even if the game can be extremely pay to win if you play online. I usually stay away from that due to poor connection issues but that's most my problem. Ambush hitting is nice but a bit of a novelty. I can see how it'll be nice for online matches. Overall, as a casual player, outside of this being taken off of gamepass, I'm fairly satisfied with the product here. The graphical system needs a huge upgrade and there's some glitches during games that I didnt see last year. But it's a good package for something that plays it fairly safe.

As someone who has played each of the games in this series, totaling 12 main entries into the story, this is by far the worst by a long shot. It all starts and ends with the story and how poorly executed it is and the sheer amount of plot holes that exist within it. The game introduces at time rewind mechanic new to the franchise with the mcguffins introduced in the previous game. There's zero explanation as to why things happen and just generally exists to pad out the run time, which is ironic since this is by far the shortest game in the franchise. There are VERY few things introduced here that affect the overall main story, so much so that you could easily describe this as an "anime filler episode". It only exists because things weren't ready elsewhere in the story yet and they needed to get more time in to produce other episodes. I will give them credit that a few of the lesser side characters are given fairly detailed explanations for their backstories established in the previous game. But the ones I consider the main characters like Van or Agnes or even Elaine, are barely given any spotlight. Especially since there's a ton of open questions established already that go completely unanswered here. I'm extremely disappointed with the direction they went here. It really feels like they're trying to by time for the next game in the franchise and, knowing the release schedule, even though its already out in Japan, it wont be till 2027 till we get it in the west. That's a major bummer and really dampens my spirits for the franchise as a whole. I've been with this series since it released on the PSP way back in the 2000's and played every game since to completion. This is the first time I've been completely checked out with playing one of these games and it started barely half way through the main story. The music and gameplay keep me from giving this game a 0 but there's so much that the next game has to prove for me to be interested in the series and I'm so disappointed this is where the creators decided to go with this long running franchise.

I've waited over 10 years for another Yakuza game with Goro Majima as the main character and this didn't disappoint with that. Majima is easily the best character that's come out of this franchise and his presence, or lack thereof, in the previous two games was an issue for me. He props up a fairly lackluster story that is very short compared to previous Yakuza games and makes things much more enjoyable. If you just concentrated on the main story, you could easily get through it in under 10 hours. But Yakuza games are meant to be enjoyed with a slew of side quests and, while there are quite a few of them here, nothing really stands out beyond the new Pirate mechanics. There's ship battling here, which is ok. It's fairly simple and was enjoyable but they put you through a ton of it and it really became a nuisance for me towards the end of the game. It's not bad but there's an overemphasis on it, making it feel like they were trying to compensate for the lack of run time elsewhere. Thankfully Majima steps up and really carries things here. Matt Mercer does a wonderful playing him here. I'd say this is closer to an 8.5 then a 9 but I rounded up just cause I like Majima so much here. While it doesn't all come together well enough with the story and with most of the side quests not up to the usual standard I expect from Yakuza games, his presence really hold this all together. I really hope they do another feature with him in the future, or make him a bigger emphasis in the story with Kiryu seemingly moved to the side now with the ending of the previous game. That probably won't happen but it would be nice.

For a company like Obsidian to put out a game like this is fairly disappointing. Nothing really sticks out and grabs your attention. Combat is probably the best part of the game. It feels good but doesn't really do much to push the needle. But the game is very grindy and the shine that the combat brings losses its good will after having to slog through killing the same enemies just to get to a level where you can be adequate. The story doesn't do much either, especially in an established universe. Its fairly barebones and the companions you get throughout the story are very dull. If this had come from an up and coming studio trying to establish a new universe then I'd give it more credit. However, from the makers of Fallout: New Vegas, this couldn't be more disappointing. While technically sound in some places, I expect more from Obsidian then just an average experience. Combined with their last game, The Outer Worlds, they've lost some of the good will they'd built up over the years and now I'm not so sure I trust them to make a great game anymore. We'll see where they go from here.

Very good game with a very high barrier for entry. The combat is difficult and takes time to figure out. Once you do get good at it though, it's very well done and intricate. But takes time to really grasp what to do and the game doesn't exactly tell you very well how to accomplish that. Lack of autosaves don't help either, especially with how buggy the later portion of the game can get. On consoles especially since you really have to rely on certain ways to save and get used to save and quitting alot. You can save scum the game, but it quickly turns into you having to do that just to avoid any poss bugs from creeping up on you. Outside of that the story is well done and I really liked most of the voice actors in the game. But the bugs really need to be worked out before some of the bigger DLC comes out.

Definitely the best Dynasty Warriors game released in a long time. The changes to the combat to put more emphasis on defensive moves spices things up quite nicely and the overall story changes, by adding in an OC that they filter events through, really gives it a more personal touch and adds more characterization to all these people we've been playing as in DW games for years now. Even if that OC is just stuffed to the max with the typical Anime/Video Game protagonist tropes that usually push me away from liking them. And more detail is given to alot of the battles that happen for each faction along the way. However, it ends kinda abruptly and doesn't finish all the missions most DW players would expect from these games. It does feel like they can get a whole other game out of what's left and I've got high hopes for the follow up to this. DW games haven't been this good in awhile so I hope they don't mess with things moving forward here.

While it falls prey to some of the worst issues that plague Bethesda open world games like horrible enemy A.I and overly reliant on finding collectibles, the overall product here is wonderful. The story is easily better than either one of the most recent movies and Troy Baker really steals the show as Indy and is perfect for the role. While I wasn't happy with the final boss, Voss is a great Indiana Jones **** villain and the writing here is spectacular. There's just enough of the campiness that comes with the series that really brings you in and left me very satisfied with the final result. I can see why some people wouldnt like certain aspects of this game but it really just clicked for me. I'd say this is easily one of the best Xbox studio games to be released in a long time and it's a no brainer for anyone with Gamepass.

A tremendous Metroidvania that needs to come to all systems, Nine Sols takes what works with most games in this genre and adds some unique touches to the formula. The story is well done, even if it doesnt do a great job explaining what is actually happening at times. I was surprised by some of the horrific imagery at times, with certain sections of the game turning into a terrifying horror game but very brief moments. But the characters are well done, which you dont see alot in these types of games. Gameplay is based heavily around a parry mechanic more than dodging in my opinion, and can take some time to get used too. The amount of customization you have over the difficulty was refreshing too, even letting you choose how much damage you deal and how much damage you take to precise measurements. I did have some slow down issues, even on a higher end PC that makes think the game could still use a patch or two to iron things out. But it's hard not to recommend this game for fans of the genre. Just need to wait for the release on consoles and I think it'll be seen as one of the best Metroidvania games out there.

Comparing this to either Persona or SMT doesn't really do any of the games justice. Yes this game takes various systems from both games, the combat from SMT and the calender system from Persona and adds its own new spin to each. But you really aren't doing yourself any favors by trying to figure out which one is "better" per say. I liked my time with this game and enjoyed most of it, from the story to the characters and combat system. The main thing I can say is that they really have to stop making games with the previous generation in mind because the graphics are not very good, outside of the stylized art in the menus and character design. The game also barely runs at 30 FPS and there were significant drops in that for a couple of locations here. Were almost 4 years into this generation so I don't think its beyond asking why they still put these games out on PS4. I know the reason but enough is enough with that. Its really holding back all Atlus games in general. But its a very good game and Atlus is known for making very good JRPG's and this is no different. Just don't try and compare it to their previous titles because that doesnt serve any of the games very well in the end.

I had some questions when I saw this game pop up and saw that it was being made by Bloober Team. They haven't exactly made anything in the past that was better then mediocre. However they had been trying to make the successor to the Silent Hill games for years, so I shouldn't have been surprised with how well this turned out to be. The atmosphere and setting are still top notch and something that I'd recommend to any horror fan out there. The story is great as well, giving the player multiple endings, giving the game a ton of replay ability. I wish those endings were easier to actually do, as some of them have some very esoteric ways of accomplishing the requirements. But this is still one of the best horror games I've ever played and the new aspects to an old classic make me want to recommend it to everyone I come across. I've seen the PC version has quite a few bugs and issues right now, but the PS5 version didn't seem to have those problems.

Dead Rising is a game that seems permanently trapped in the era it came out in, back at the launch of the Xbox 360. While alot has been added to the experience to try and make it easier on the player to see all of its content, alot of the things that have always held it back are still here and won't ever go away without a full-on remake. Alot of the jankiness is still present here, with weird animations and things that get clipped in the walls all the time. The main problem still here is the escort missions that the game is heavily built upon. The AI here is still beyond garbage and having some of these guys follow you is an experience in making you want to rip your hair out all the time. Some people would classify that as a feature, mostly those who are just really into the game. But that was something that just never had been encountered before in games and they didn't give a crap about its development back in the day. I can say that the new controls work well and the graphics are very well done, something that Dead Rising has always been known for. But, at the end of the day, I can't really recommend this over the re-release from a few years ago because there's not enough change to the whole experience. If this was closer to 30 bucks, then I would say it would be worth it. But, if you're not just an absolute DR super fan, then there's no reason not to wait for a sale around Christmas time here.

The Answer was always a bit forgotten in the Persona 3 storyline. It works well in terms of story for what it wants to do and what its goal was, to show how the characters responded to the ending of the original game. Each of the characters you've spent time with during the main game gets some time to shine here and show how things have gone since then. While the story is more about the journey then the destination, it still works out well in the end and gives the story some closure. However the gameplay portion here is why most people dont remember it. While the things that were added to the base game for the remake are here, in terms of battle stuff, that's literally all this game is. Nothing but grindy levels with no downtime in between, outside of very short and occasional stat boosting conversations similar to the base game. It makes actually getting through tough because the game is WAY too long for all it offers. Each new level takes forever to get through and you DEFINITELY have to grind up levels to even have a shot later on and it's very easy to fall behind in that regard. It was easily the worst about the original version and it doesn't change here. It can make getting to see some of the story beats difficult when there's nothing but grinding in between. It really shows how important the social link aspects of these games are as there really hasn't been a spin off that have had them that has been even close to the base games. But I can still recommend this to fans of the base game, especially with no new Persona games on the horizon. Just know you'll be working for the story pay off and I'd definitely play this in spurts to avoid getting absolutely burned out with all the grinding that happens here.

The Star Wars name can't save this from being an aggressively mediocre 3rd person game. The fact it was made by Ubisoft, who has their own brand of same ole', same ole', really doesn't help out with its enjoyment either. Nothing really stands out here. The story is fairly bland, and not helped out by how boring the main character, Key Vess, is to the overall experience. She doesn't stand out at all and comes off as a brooding and more boring female version of Han Solo. The maps you run around are fairly interesting looking but are just full of nothing but side quests to get upgrade items you will already find yourself full of by the second planet. I have to make special mention of the music as it's definitely the star of the show for me. But I feel this game has been done so many times, especially by Ubisoft, in the past that it doesn't do anything special. Even for hardcore Star Wars fans this is very difficult to recommend, especially with the bugs the game currently has. I can say pretty much everyone can avoid this, at least until it goes down below 20 bucks in probably the near future, if the news about the sales numbers for its first week are to be believed.

A game that will be killed off in another year due to being a live service game no one wants, this really had alot of potential to it. The main storyline, before the end game stuff, is terrific and the characters are amazing in it. The gameplay works pretty well for what it is and things could have been just fine had it ended there. However the live service BS that comes with this game will forever will haunt it forever and be the literal death of it after a year or so online. It's a shame what WB has done to the Arkham games, which this is a sequel too, and what a waste of a final performance from Kevin Conroy, doing his best to carry alot of the villain side of things here for most of the game. I got this game for free and I know for a fact that I won't be going back to it later on, even if the rumored true ending that Kevin recorded for it exists. Once you hit the end game here, it becomes a massive grind fest to get to where you want to go. Unless there's a major character released in the final 2 main chapters soon I don't see much replayability here and that's assuming WB doesn't pull the plug early and kill the game off before it can get to that point.

Easily the best chance for newcomers to the series to jump into the world, Daybreak does alot of things right when trying to establish a new, unexplored region to a world that a ton of people are already heavily invested into. Van Arkride is a very good new main character, even if he comes off as a Gary Stu most of the time who has all the answers. The rest of the party is well crafted and most of them are pretty interesting. But the game makes things easier by not having the player need to know everything about all the rest of the games to enjoy the whole experience. While there are a few cameos by a couple of characters fans of the series will recognize, they aren't over the top. However the horrible trend for RPG's about only having one character have a voice over during most cutscenes is a major issue here. It happens almost all the time and it really takes you out of some scenes that are supposed to be emotional and have alot of weight to them. This is easily the worst I've ever seen it and it's something that needs to be eliminated totally moving foward. The battle system has been streamlined a bit to be less confusing, even if the new over world, action RPG style opener doesn't exactly work in my opinion. But fortunately you don't have to use it ever if you dont want too. I'm glad Falcom finally got around to releasing this in the west, and I'm happy that they will be releasing the follow up to this game early next year. But with the 3rd game coming out in Japan in September, I really hope they don't make us wait another 3 years, like we had to with both this and the following game, to release in the west. Because things just seem to work with this new direction and I really don't want to be so far behind Japan in releases again.

Luigi's Mansion 2 dropped the ball for me in a couple of areas that the other two games really didn't do. It's a remake of the 3DS game, and tries to changeup the formula a little bit by adding multiple new locations but making each world mission based. It doesn't flow very well, especially when the professor interrupts you every 5 seconds to tell you something you already knew. It's also fairly difficult, with a couple of the bosses here being very cheap with their mechanics and, since the series never has had a good control scheme, it made navigating through some of them a chore, especially since there's no checkpoint system of any kind here. I was honestly surprised by how much I didn't like this game. These kinds of Nintendo releases usually work for me but this one just doesn't cut it in my book. Play through LM 3 again if you're wanting to get your fix for these games I'd say.

A very fun Metroidvania that clearly has some money behind it. The presentation for the game is great and the story does very well to keep you interested. The combat also works great, while the platforming stuff can be hit or miss. Also have to mention that this is one of the harder games in the genre I've ever played. The critical path stuff isn't too bad but some of the puzzles for the 100% status are absolutely insane. I very quickly realized I wouldn't be getting to that point. As for the Switch port, it runs very well most of the time. There is some slow down later in the game while docked and I seemed to have alot if I didn't power the game down completely instead of putting the system in sleep like I usually do. Overall this is a wonderful game and I'm surprised at how well optimized the Switch version is here. So much so that I would probably recommend it over the other ports.

This is a tremendous remake for a beloved game from the Gamecube that Nintendo seemingly forgot about since it's initial release. It's the best Paper mario has ever been and it's great that they released it from the retro hell Nintendo has been forcing their games to live in for a long time now. The remake adds some minor, but very nice, updates to some of the more tedious issues from the original game, such as helping with the back tracking issues and helping with some of the level designs. At the end of the day, hopefully Nintendo finally gets it through their skull that THIS is the type of game we want for Paper Mario moving forward. Not the gimicky, awful releases we've gotten since this games initial release.

Stellar Blade is the equivalent of a 7/10 game. The combat is great and carries the whole game, while the story is mediocre at best with awful characters and poor voice acting. Even the developers came out and said they know the story is lackluster. Alot of people will also be upset about the main character Eve, in the fact that she's basically just a very attractive barbie doll, with the main collectables being new outfits and accessories for her, some of which I cant believe they actually kept in the game uncensored. There's very much a demographic that they are going for here and it feels like the outfits get borderline pornographic sometimes. Although, without that in the game, there's not much else here to keep things interactive and interesting. It helps that this game out during a lull in new releases, even if that will turn off alot of people. It's hard to recommend this to anyone who might have to play it around your parents or signifcant other. Things get very awkward at times.

Vanillaware seems to have taken the things that people didn't like from its previous game, 13 Sentinels, and focus on fixing those, at the expense of some of that games strengths. Unicorn Overload features a very robust combat system that seems simple on the surface, but can very quickly become a hard thing to master. I liked it enough, even if the game got a little grindy towards the end, just due to the amount of characters there are in the game and how many you can deploy in battle. It kept my attention where the story couldn't. It's a very generic fantasy style of quest. Where you play as the prince of a defunct kingdom and you have to save the world. And, because of the amount of characters there are here, no one really gets any character development outside of their initial quest where you recruit them to the party. It's a shame because of how good the story in 13 Sentinels was and it carried that game. It didn't keep me from 100% the game, which can take about 40-50 hours depending on how much you need to grind towards the end. Even with the generic story, I can still recommend this game, especially for the Switch since most of the combat missions here are very well suited for the console. I'm personally hoping to see Vanillaware's next game split the difference between how good the story and combat are and deliver one that is great at both.

Rebirth is probably the most ambition game I've played in a long time, probably since Remake when it came out. The amount of love and care put into the game is outstanding and, just like Remake before it, you can tell the developers behind the game hold the original game in extreme reverence. There's so much to do and see here it's amazing, especially for those who know the original game really well. It was great seeing places like Junon Harbor and Cosmo Canyon in just amazing detail that it made some of the more tedious open world quests easier to do for me. While alot of people won't like that the open world segements are copy/pastes from other games, with a heavy Ubisoft vibe with some of them, the rewards do make the grind worth it, for me at least. And this kind of open world traversal does answer the question about Remake being way to linear ****. The story is also given alot of love and care, and continues Remakes ability to keep you guessing, even if there's not as many question marks that pop up this time for the future storyline. My one complaint, and the reason I'm not giving this a 10, is the ending. No spoilers but the thing they've clearly been building up to and they've been hinting at for 2 games worth of time, didn't hit the mark for me. While it's not exactly bad, it didn't live up to the hype as for what I was expecting. It feels confusing just to be confusing and to keep that element of guess work moving forward for the part 3 game later on down the line. I've seen alot of gaming news outlets be disappointed with it and, after seeing it myself, I can see why they would be not as impressed. That aside however, this is easily a game of the year candidate already, and one that I think might be difficult to beat. Especially with how crazy good 2023 was and with the lack of news about any big releases coming in 2024. I can safely recommend this to anyone who's played through Remake and wants more of just a high-quality game that was clearly given the love and attention needed to be a standout title coming off of a year of absolute bangers. While I have some major questions moving forward with the story, this is an easy no doubter to recommend in my mind.