Look Outside

• Genre: Horror RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: A little. This is arguably one of those games it might be best to experience without having too much information. If you're already planning to play but haven't yet. It's best not to read too far in here.
• Time Played: 35 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Felt pretty good to me. I did the vast majority in a single run, but if I was playing a bit more linear, I could have knocked it out in half the time easy, and it's probably the way it was more designed to be played.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: It's mostly pretty good, a little repetitive at time, but it has some bangers.
• Why I played: Alice insisted I play it, I kind of jokingly said I would play it after Adventures of Elliot with little intention of finishing Elliot any time soon, or playing something else and then saying "Yeah, and it will still be AFTER Elliot, even if I play 5 more games next", but I wasn't really feeling anything I've been wanting to get into so I just jumped right in.
• Jank: It's one of those games where you can easily click through dialog boxes and you may have to repeatedly read dialog, but that's partially on me for being impatient.
• Difficulty: Early on it's more about survival and using each resource carefully, but later on it's a bit easier - at least playing the way I did, so maybe combat isn't meant to be so easy. But the real difficult lies in the times where you need figure out how to proceed properly. It's a little difficult of a game overall, but nothing crazy.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very please with this. I'm not sure I expected all too much, and at first I just along for the ride, but eventually it clicked and I was very interested to see how things would turn out... at every turn.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. I think a lot of people would get even more out of it than me. Especially people who don't feel the need to do every little thing and go full-completionist as they play through a game. People who are interested in the game enough to give it a couple playthroughs. There is definitely enough variation in how things turn out to have a couple, if not a few more or less wholly unique playthroughs if you're not trying to do everything. I also especially would recommend it to anyone who likes eldritch/cosmic horror.
  

The first thing I would do upon starting the game is Look Outside. I would find myself at many points in the game wanting to Look Outside. Maybe this is the time there will be an answer when I Look Outside. In a game where you awaken to a mystery of something beyond your comprehension, it's hard to talk about the greater theme of the game without being spoilery, but I feel like I can at least discuss some things I liked/didn't like, etc.

Look Outside has some really fun and clever writing. There are a lot of unique characters to interact with, and even when brief, they can often feel like characters more fleshed out than those that appear in many other pieces of media. It helps their design often strongly leans into their archetype in a unique way. Or perhaps something about them has changed so drastically, just hearing them tell their experience makes them feel more alive than so many others. There is a surprising amount of character dialog - and so much of it is entirely optional, or even missable. Another reason I think the game might serves multiple playthroughs better - as long as you're not trying to mimic your prior playthough, that is. I'm not planning to immediately restart it, but I can even see how I would approach things differently a second time just to experience things differently and likely get a lot of dialog I didn't previously. 

The Adventures of Elliott: The Millennium Tales

• Genre: Action RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Kind of spoiler free up until where I say I'm going to do big spoilers but still round-about spoilers throughout, just trying not to be specific.
• Time Played: 30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not excessively long game, but the pacing/progression don't do it any favors. It feels way longer than it is because it seems like it's going to wrap up at multiple points and doesn't really offer anything new for a long time.
• Did I cry: It did manage to squeeze a tear or two out of me despite how my recount may sound.
• Soundtrack: It wasn't bad, but overall just a little too general cheery adventure music for me. When they "went hard" it felt forced and not exactly in line with the rest of the tracks. Individually there are no bad tracks, but it didn't have an identity of it's own - it was clearly just taking from what inspired it.
• Why I played: The visuals and the gameplay are both huge draws for me. I love the "H2-2D" look and I also really like Ys games, which this takes most of it's inspiration from.
• Jank: There were a few times I had to restart the game because the ability to use Faie just completely bugged out. Often during the worst possible times, such as doing this challenge gauntlet - which I still managed without the help of Faie mind you, despite some of her later abilities being kind of overpowered.
• Difficulty: Very low. I thought I saw something about there being special scene if you die at certain points and so there were times I purposefully died to see if anything special would happen, but it never did. Other than that I never died - I used potions to prevent death - it's not like I didn't take damage, but at least early on in the game I had the 99 combo going for so long I decided to just take it easier and play a bit more quickly/recklessly, which would actually lose my health, but nothing a potion didn't solve.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm not exactly disappointed with the game as a whole, just exhausted. I guess what I'm most disappointed about is the poor writing and lack of consistency when it comes to continuity and paradox.
• Recommend to others: I probably wouldn't recommend it over what it draws inspiration from. Ys, Mana games, Zelda games a bit, and then the many games that were also inspired them, such as one of my absolute favorites; CrossCode. I just couldn't help but feel like this was less good than so many other games in so many other ways - visuals aside, because those are still very fun, and it does have higher production values in other aspects too, but it just comes up short on how fun or interesting it is.

Overall I did enjoy it, but I was left exhausted of it by time I was done. I think that's the first misstep - the pacing/world design. On it's own, there is nothing wrong with the world - arguably even a decent - if not extremely generic world. You got your woods, desert, snowfield and volcano, and town all of which are so uninspired the ice land is literally called "White Area", and to the west of that? "West Area", though it's kind of funny having both Nothern West Area and Southern West Area, and Neverwither is a clever name for a forest place.

Regardless, across a millennium, nothing really changes for these environments. Not for the most part. Some bridges move, some ladders move and that's about 90% of it. Fallen trees that block your path somehow remain for a thousand years in some cases, or perhaps a tree falls in the same exact place after a window of it opening. Key locations have a couple switch ups, but for the most part you're exploring the same exact map 4 different times. Every dungeon has a collectable in every time too, it could be a useful life piece, or it could be an item that you already collected via the random gacha system the game has, but don't worry if you collect one you already have then they'll compensate you by offering exactly 1 of the item you need 5 of to perform a gacha draw. Wowie kabowie. You're telling me after I find 5 useless chests along an hour of treasure hunting I can do a SINGLE gacha pull which will likely award me... a duplicate item which will award me exactly 1 of the gacha currency.

Star Fox

• Genre: On-rails shooter
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It is what it is, it's a remake. The campaign is pretty short but it has replayability with different routes and levels.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Classic Star Fox music, it's a remake and it's iconic but it's nothin new or too special.
• Why I played: I love Star Fox, not that there are entirely too many, but I have finished every Star Fox game.
• Jank: The only jank I'd really say this game has is it's uhh.. choices for multiplayer. Not having any form of split-screen is a big miss. Star Fox's design from it's mechanics to the simplicity/high contrast of the models is built for visibility. There is little to no reason to exclude Split-screen. It can't, or shouldn't be a hardware issue either, considering it's a remake. Because of the point of view, you don't need super highly detailed environments. Also I don't know if this is just "true to the original" but it's annoying that enemies will fly "off-screen" even in all-range mode. I'm not sure if it's because the camera is too restricted or they're just going to high and stuff, but it definitely feels wrong and unfair.
• Difficulty: By default it's not too hard with a couple of exceptions. However the challenges of earning medals has always been quite a requirement. It doesn't make it less playable, and at least there aren't multiplayer options locked behind it this time.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm Pleasappointed. Like it's Star Fox and I'm happy to get more Star Fox even if "more" is the same. There is more characterization, additional scenes, etc. This and that. It's not as much as I would have expected though, and I do feel they didn't fully realize their multiplayer as they should have.
• Recommend to others: I would if you like Star Fox and just want something to play in that regard, but I'm not going out of my way to do so. It's fine and I had fun with it, but it's not wholly something new either.
  

This other than it's more or less the remake it sets out to be. It's Star Fox 64 with just a little more. No reimagining, no changing things, just adding bits here and there. It's neat, it's cute, and I wouldn't have expected anything more when it comes to the campaign. Like they could have kept that 1-1 the same and I'm totally fine with that. They add some quality of life features like replaying a mission immediately if you miss the route you were going for, and a free mission select that gives each it's own challenging, it's nice but an unnecessary addition. What I did hope for was for them to take the opportunity to do something really cool with the multiplayer - which they almost did.

It's 8 player, and it's not just a boring old deathmatch where you just loop around each other constantly(like fighting Wolf on Venom), as you are provided with some cannon-fodder npcs, perimeter turrets, and unique objectives for each stage. I think those are all really cool additions to modernize the dog-fighting of Star Fox 64. I think it absolutely missed the mark by not including ANY kind of split-screen. I think 3 levels just isn't enough variety. Considering how much effort they put into having other little customization for the multiplayer and having avatars and stuff like that - you would have thought they would have actually put more effort and focus into it. Honestly I expected this remake of Star Fox 64 to be more of a multi-player game that happens to have the Star Fox 64 campaign attached as an extra little bonus. I couldn't be more wrong. The multiplayer feels half baked and more like one of those single-player games they tack on multiplayer as an afterthought. Even the co-op feels more like an attempt to promote-force the Switch 2's mouse capabilities. It offers local shared-screen or even game share, but regardless what you do you have to use the Joycon for player one and the mouse-mode joycon for player 2. Makes it a little hard to play the Switch in handheld mode. You could prop it up, sure, but who actually wants to do that? You'd also need a smooth surface to use mouse mode. Why not just allow for uhh regular controls? These even have all the capabilities of normal motion controls so why not also point and shoot as an option? Once again - half-baked multiplayer.

It's unfortunate, and what's more unfortunate is I feel like this game was potentially being used a barometer to gauge peoples interest in the series and maybe we would get some great new Star Fox content in the near future should it perform well, but I fear it just doesn't offer enough to capture a new audience and did too little to impress long-term fans, even those who eat up every crumb.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It feels a little long for what it is. Not that the gimmick grows tired but there is a point where you've more or less done all you can with everything you have. The dungeons are generally pretty short though, so it's either something about the way I did everything, or maybe there are just too many of the rift areas that feel a bit redundant.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: I would say probably the weakest part of this. Zelda soundtracks are usually pretty good, but nothing really stood out, and most tracks sounded like they were just general background noise from a hushed orchestra. Not that nothing was good, it just didn't stand out like Zelda usually does.
• Why I played: Usually I wouldn't feel I need to explain why I played a Zelda game, but it took me a good bit to get to this one. The Link's Awakening Remake just wasn't what I hoped for/imagined and I felt with this being in the same style of that it was going to be a let down as well. I happened to be talking to someone playing this while I was playing Mina the Hollower, talking about puzzles, and they had a pretty positive perspective on Echoes of Wisdom that inspired me to pick it up next.
• Jank: It's not really janky. There is some weird stuff you can force with your summons if you're really trying to brute force things, but generally it's a pretty smooth experience.
• Difficulty: Echoes of Wisdom isn't that difficult overall, it gives you a lot of options. There may be some puzzles those who struggle to think outside the box may struggle with, but I think it's cleverly designed in a way that a lot of things can be approached various ways.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm actually very pleased overall. My hesitations were misguided and this is another great Zelda game. In some ways I think it's the most well designed Zelda game yet.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. Especially to those who love Zelda and hesitated to play it like I did.

Just like I took so long to play it, I took so long to write up my review. I finished early in the week. Sunday? Monday? Here I am finally considering what to say the better part of a week later. It kind of leaves me with not too much to say at first. It was a really solid game. It had surprisingly clever puzzles, many of which can be approached in many ways. It's odd because it leaves you feeling like your broke the game, or did something you weren't supposed to. I've played few games where I wondered "Is this what the devs intended?" as I progressed through the game.

Even after completing it, I think the answer is yes. I think the devs intended for you to "make shortcuts", even when those shortcuts weren't in fact shortcuts. After completing the game and getting everything, and then looking back, some parts you begin to realize there was no other way to proceed, or if there was - what you could have done different ultimately would have left you with the same feeling of "Am I supposed to do it this way?" "Am I allowed to be here - the way I got here?" and for some reason that makes me feel like the game is well designed. It makes you think you're getting one over on it, but you're just playing as intended.

Mina the Hollower

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: No.
• Time Played: 37 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I don't want to say it's too long, and I took my time certainly to 100%, and running back quickly through some areas I suppose they didn't seem too long, but some sections just feel a little too long. Maybe because of how much there is in total, searching every nook and cranny.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's pretty good. Mostly just classic inspired game tunes, solid but nothing groundbreaking.
• Why I played: I loved Shovel Knight and played all the follow ups - I might not have beaten King Knights though, I'll have to check. Mina the Hollower takes inspiration from so many games I love, that I had to play it.
• Jank: There is a lot to the game, and I would say the jank mostly comes in lack of explanation. Not that you can't experiment or look at the In-Game Manual, but there a couple things that could be clearer. There are also a few cases of "not counting for everything" where you can soft-lock or glitch into weird places. I only had to reset to title screen once myself, but I have seen other examples. Thankfully an easy fix and little-to-no lost progress.
• Difficulty: Jesus Christ this game is far harder than it needs to be. I know there are a thousand modifiers to make it an easier experience and MAYBE I should have turned at least a couple of them on, but I wanted to play modifier free, the intended experience, etc. etc. I often feel that kind of stuff is for replays and such. I feel like one of the biggest pain points is how they do the health restoration. It has some very challenging sections, but the fact you are punished in healing for performing poorly is a poor game design decision. I get in some aspects it's to encourage aggressive and skilful game play, but honestly it could encourage more cheesing, or more wasting time by going back and forth, etc. You can get stuck in positions where you have a ton of healing vials, but no enemies, as it's a puzzle or platforming challenge, so you can't actually heal at all. I feel like the game would be far better if the healing functioned like it does in most game - a static amount, or variance as you progress, rather than based off your attacks and not getting hit. The one advantage it has is that 1 vial can potentially be 100% healing even at low health, but that's seldom the situation.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite the above complaint about the difficulty, I am pretty pleased. It was a very fun game with a lot of cool stuff.
• Recommend to others: I would, but I would definitely recommend - if you're not achievement hungry (and you shouldn't be), using a modifier that adjusts how potions work, and maybe a few other quality of life-style ones that don't fully change the game but maybe make some of the back and forth and other minor pain-points a bit less stressful.
  

I did really like Mina the Hollower, but damn it was tough. Besides the what I still think is a poorly executed healing system, some parts of the game are just straight up more difficult than they feel they need to be for this type of game. There is a lot of variance and customization you can do to the experience, even before the "modifiers" come into play. There are 5 different weapons and tons of "trinkets" that customize the experience. Even so, if I were changing my equipment to adapt for every situation it would really effect the pacing of what I already thought was a little bit of a long winded game.

That said the areas all feel pretty unique and each have their own cool set pieces, and the use of the "hollowing"(see burrowing) is generally pretty clever and well implemented. It is a really good game, and you can clearly see the amount of care that went into all the little details and fleshing out every bit. I just can't help but feel it would be a slightly better game if the native experience was a bit more approachable. Sure the argument for using modifiers to make it easier is valid, but in that case, using modifiers to make it more difficult is just as valid. Anyway, I'm not that salty about it, but any time anyone asks me what I thought of it, I will definitely say "I really liked it but it's hard as hell" and campaign for playing easier if they had yet to play it.

Hell is Us

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 48
• Too Short/Long: Maybe it's drawn out a little bit, part of that may be by design, but it didn't really grow too tiresome.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It has a dark atmospheric and heavy soundtrack with a lot of loud booms and crashes that enhance the experience for sure. I don't know how great it's to listen on it's own, but I may end up using tracks from it to set the mood for tabletop games.
• Why I played: I'm honestly not sure. I think at some point I just saw a trailer and was like "that looks neat" and decided to go out on whim. It's not the most talked about game and fills a weird niche of not-AAA design(non-derogatory), while kinda being a AAA-esque game.
• Jank: It's mostly jank free. Took me a little longer to get used to the controls than maybe it should, and feels loose at first, but that all goes away with more time in the game. I think it's otherwise pretty polished - no glitches, or weirdness I can recall.
• Difficulty: It seems to have some good options for setting difficulty as you see fit, but it was pretty much where I like it by default. Combat could be challenging at times, and some sections requires me to retry a few times, but nothing crazy. The real difficulty comes from the puzzles, and I guess it's not entirely all that hard in many cases. It just requires a lot of reading and memorization.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased with this. I expected more or less another actiony souls-like, and it's more of it's own thing. It's still an action game primarily, and it has some elements typically associated with souls-games. It even has options for souls-like progression(regression?), but it's more of an action game with some pretty in-depth puzzles.
• Recommend to others: I definitely will be mentioning this to other people. I've already started in fact. It's kind of a weird game as it's not exactly like too many other games I've played as a whole, so it fits a neat spot where there's nothing exactly like it I could recommend over it, but also makes it a little hard to know exactly who may want to play a game like this.
  

Hell is Us is a rare kind of a game that looks and feels familiar but is actually pretty unique. It has all the trapping and style of a lot of Souls-esque games. A cryptic world that is more than it a appears when mysterious enemies. A combat system that relies on precise timing with parries, dodge rolls, a stamina bar, etc.

But it also has problem solving, and a lot of it. Something you'd more likely see in a pure old-school adventure game. I'm not gonna say it's as extensive as something like Myst, but... it definitely has some of the most unique and sometimes obtuse puzzles I've seen in a game a in a long time. A lot of them are simple and just require you to pay attention to the environment, or make sure to read your notes and remember which note you need, but some definitely require a bit more than that, some sound reasoning, context clues, etc. There is no map in this game, no waypoints, no quest markers. It leaves a lot of the responsibility on the player to figure things out, and honestly it's pretty refreshing.

Even though it's arguably less of the time you'll spend in the game, it feels like that was actually the primary focus. Not that the combat isn't satisfying, but I managed most of it without using too many spells/special skills outside the first and last couple hours of the game. Considering how long I played, that the vast majority of the time not even fully engaging with it. The enemy diversity isn't it's strongest point, and while there are a few boss battles, it's really only a few. They're great, but arguably too few, and the end kind of just ends when you think maybe you're coming right up to the climax of the game. Turns out that was it.

But the experience as a whole was great and it was an interesting and different kind of setting for this kind of game. A modern game that truly has some more old-school minded design choices, without just relying on pixel art or just fully replicating something like an NES platformer. It's not exactly something I'd put in my "PS2-ass" games list either. It just felt like a different route certain modern games could have taken if being more hand-holdy wasn't so more accessible and arguably more successful. I appreciate it for that because every "win" felt like my own. Even if I did have to read a novel's worth of text. I guess it was classic in that sense too.

Arctic Eggs

• Genre: Cooking Simulation
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 2.3 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine for what it is I guess. There is a sandbox mode where you can make any combo of items presented in the game, so you can squeeze just about all you can out of it.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Actually surprising good. Nothing too crazy, but it's a vibe.
• Why I played: A friend really liked it and said it was probably her favorite game she played all year.
• Jank: Not really enough to be janky, pretty much everything it does it seems to be with intent. 
• Difficulty: A little tricky, but nothing too crazy.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It was nice, but I'm just disappointed there wasn't much more to it.
• Recommend to others: Not really, not that it's bad. There just isn't much to offer unless you really like games with cooking mechanics.

I thought Arctic Eggs was going to be a lot more than it was. I thought there was going to be this depth that you peel back as you go through. I thought it was going to be a surreal experience that would leave me thinking. But nah, you just cook some eggs and other miscellaneous things with some obstacles or challenges in your way while you do so. It's set in a weird setting to flavor it, but in the end, you're just cooking some fried egg, both sides, as usual.

Crescent Tower

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: There isn't much to spoil, but I do talk about the mechanics of the final boss.
• Time Played: 24 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too long, considering about half of it is grinding, especially at the end.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's fine.
• Why I played: It had cute art and I know a friend enjoyed it. They always get me with that classic anime pixel art though.
• Jank: The menus are pretty clumsy. When trying to optimize my class changes I kept having to go back and forth and back and forth. There are tons of times where I opened the wrong menu because it didn't have the correct information. Made worse by all the real estate on screen where they could have had some of the stats. I think maybe they felt it would be silly to have the same information on multiple screens, but having to exit all the way back to another to compare your stats or abilities is not the way to clean things up.
• Difficulty: I'm not sure how much of it is difficulty that required me personally to grind, rather than difficulty of the actual strategy required of the game. I do think there are some interesting things touched on some rpgs ignore, but ultimate the difficulty lies in it being a grindfest.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Overall I enjoyed it, so I'm pleased enough. It just managed to push my patience a few times.
• Recommend to others: Not really. There are overall better little dungeon crawlers than this one, and even though it has a lot of cool stuff, the last section really prevents me from recommending it. Or if you wanna play it, I'd probably recommend doing so on the easier mode.
  

Crescent Tower isn't bringing anything new to the table necessarily, but it's a nostalgic jaunt that brings some interaction, puzzles, character art and class changes. It really drew me in at first, but then I needed a bit of a break when it just started feeling way too grindy in the middle of the game. Sometimes you get a random encounter 1 step after another. It's a little too much. I'd say on average it's like 5-10 steps, which is just too much for a game focuses a little more on an open exploration and figuring out the trick of the area as opposed to something with a linear path. It's not too complicated, but with all the other navigational quirks, it's possible you may just forget what you're doing exactly and get caught in a endless loop of random encounters because they're so frequent.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the way it soft-locks the level cap. It just gets to a point where the next level requires exponentially more experience than the last. This is exacerbated to the nth degree by the final area. I would say my last third of my play time is just spent in the last hallway before the final boss. The final boss has very high defense, immune to all status effects, resistant to all magic, and fully heals every round, so you can definitely be "too weak" to finish it, even with every buff on your own characters in the game. It's arguably not even about strategy at that point. Unless I missed some gimmick that was there and was just unnecessarily brute forcing the game. It's crazy that you can get to the point where it takes you dozens of battles to level up but still not be strong enough to beat the final boss. It can literally, based on the average experience the final enemies dish out, without using "special techniques" take 100+ battles to level up - not even close to a max level, just a level where you are still learning new spell levels.

It's just crazy how much the leveling up comes to a halt at that point despite the fact there are more levels that grant special skills. It's not a level 60-99 grind of your standard rpg where you learn your last skill at 60 or your skills are tied to something else so there is always new stuff to learn. This is like 14-15, 15-16. My highest level character was 16 and some classes learn abilities up til level 21 or so. I think this is where the "modern" mode differs from the classic and maybe it doesn't feel so restricting, and maybe I should have played in that. I started in it, but then I saw there was a little "modern" badge on my screen at all times. This signaled to me this is meant to be "little baby mode" and you are to be chastised for it because we'll put a reminder on screen at all times for it. So I restarted before I really even began to play in the classic mode, maybe that was a mistake, maybe those levels and skills would have been attainable in modern, but the game clearly didn't consider that the "intended experience".

So instead I grinded, class changed to get more abilities and increase stats, rinse, repeat, and eventually knocked it out. To be fair, it's kind of what I was in the mood for - I just thought I was gonna wrap up earlier in the day and move on to something else after, not keep playing for an additional 6-7 hours after I thought I was about done.

Solar Ash

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah. 
• Time Played: 6-7 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not that long but it maybe feels a little drawn out at times - as much as it can be hard to control the speed of the game in some tighter more precise sections, some of the more open areas could benefit from being able to traverse more quickly.
• Did I cry: No
• Soundtrack: Pretty good soundtrack, atmospheric and dynamic and fits the setting.
• Why I played: I've had it for awhile. I liked Hyper Light Drifter a lot - I backed it on kickstarter... now 13 years ago, though released 10 years ago, yet I only finished that 4 years ago. It's hard to believe that Solar Ash was already released 5 years ago, time just goes too quick. Before I looked it up, my guess was 2 years ago. I thought I got to it much quicker. Though in only half the time. Maybe I'll try out Heart Machine's next game only two and a half years after release, oh wait I already played it. I only just started Possessor, but as I was playing it, hot off the heels of Sword of the Sea, I thought of Solar Ash. A game by the same people, with gameplay leaning more into the feel of Sword of the Sea. I guess in a sense Sword of the Sea was "Too short" for me, as I still wanted something with a similar vibe. Thankfully, I had some options.
• Jank: The jankiest part of the game probably is also the best part of the game, the controls. When it works well it's fluid and fast, fun, and snappy. But sometimes it just doesn't work how you'd think. Rei - the character you play as, fails to snap to rails, has weird collision with walls, or maybe doesn't grab a ledge you'd think she would. Sometimes you can also get stuck in a bunch of items where you awkwardly fall hover until you can control the character again. You could probably just teleport to another location or something in the worst case scenario, but I never had to. Just had to endure a moment of impatience.
• Difficulty: For the most part the game is pretty easy - except when it's not. The final phase of some of the bosses can be pretty arduous.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I enjoyed it. It's not mind-blowing. It's hard to live up to the expectation set from the creators of Hyper Light Drifter, and Giant Squid is better at that floaty exploration that I liken this game to Sword of the Sea for.
• Recommend to others: I may if it's your type of game, but I wouldn't go out of my way to. While it has more action and actual challenges than a typical Thatgamecompany or Giant Squid game, it does feel like that kind of game play. It's like Journey+Mario Galaxy+Jet Grind Radio+Shadow of the Colossus blended together, but not necessarily the sum of it's parts or surpassing them in any way. It's just an easy comparison to make.

Having just played Sword of the Sea, it's hard for me to not compare it to that. It's a very floating exploration game with kind of a sports-like movement. Sword of the Sea was like surfing/skateboarding across the desert and other various environments. Solar Ash has you skating across clouds in space and other various environments. Solar Ash does have things actually attacking you pretty regularly and combat, though it's pretty simple. As soon as you are near an enemy and attack they are defeated. Some take a few hits - but it's more about avoiding their attacks and closing the distance than it is skillfully aiming your hits toward them.

Fighting the bosses of this game is pretty unique though, and a friend compared it to a Sonic boss battle - having never played a Sonic game. To be fair, she was kind of correct. There are some Sonic boss battles that are similar, but it's not as common as it ought to be. The boss battles, or more like challenges, are kind of like Shadow of the Colossus, where you climb up a giant beast and hit is glaring weak points. Except in this game where momentum is key, it's very different from the stop and attack, practically the opposite. If you stop for just a moment, you've taken too long and will be knocked off. You also have to deftly aim your jumps and landing, for if you land within a crevice of their armor you will be knocked off as well, having to start the little challenge from the beginning, and you have to do this three times, each one more difficult than the last. For me, for each boss, only the final challenge posed any problem, but it was a drastic increase in difficulty in most cases.

The world is unique and obtuse. It's interesting though, and definitely alien - as it should be, unfortunately with it being a bit of a shorter game, as soon as I began to grasp and understand everything, it was over. It may have served better to have a bit more exposition about the situation from the beginning, but it's not an uncommon issues with sci-fi/fantasy that is making an attempt to be wholly unique. When you disconnect it from what is familiar too much, and especially when you have a bunch of unique terms for what things are, you risk alienating any kind of familiarity the audience has to comprehend what is happening. It's not the worst offender, and the story is more or less secondary to the experience as a whole, so it's more or less forgivable. 

Mouthwashing

• Genre: Horror Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah. 
• Time Played: 3 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It might actually be too short. I feel like not enough of the story is presented. As part of how they present the narrative, there are significant jumps in time, but... why? It doesn't feel necessary and the characters aren't fleshed out enough.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: No? If there was music in this game I don't remember.
• Why I played: I was once again not really feeling motivated to play anything but thought I could find the motivation to take interest in something my wife loves, as I did with Resident Evil and Silent Hill. 
• Jank: At first I thought it was part of the game, but it definitely did some weird stuff during scene transitions where it made an annoying repetitive sounds for a solid moment before the actual transition that I don't think is the usual experience. Otherwise, it's just a little obtuse at time but you could excuse the theming and genre.
• Difficulty: None - very little? There are only a few brief scenes that require you to perform any kind of skill challenge, and the general area to traverse isn't all that big - if a little confusing visually, so it usually only takes a moment to get wherever you need.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine. I'm more or less neutral. I didn't go in with any kind of expectations, just thought I'd play a game Alice likes.
• Recommend to others: I wouldn't really, personally, but despite playing a few games in the genre this year and liking at least one more than I thought I would, horror games aren't a genre I typically enjoy.

Mouthwashing feels like a project lost in time, and it's not just due to it's PSX graphics. Or perhaps it's all part of the intent and so the PSX-esque visuals were more than just a visual style choice.

To be clear it doesn't feel like an original PlayStation game - it feels like a game that would have been someones weird little free download on PC before "indie games" were a super recognized thing. I mean it is more equivalent to something you see on itch now, sure, but there is a specific vibe I'm talking about that predates current game distribution.

It's the kind of thing that as a teenager I may have thought was the deepest thing ever. Looking at some of my favorite movies and even other types of media from the era of "It's so deep". I'm not saying that in a bad way. It's just that you have a hard time not falling into that kind of narrative when you're playing from the perspective of someone else's psychosis, but those are exactly the things that an edgy teen is drawn to and I would say it differs little in that sense from what I would consider some of my most formative anime and film interests. Such presentation of the genre wasn't exactly as prevalent in the games industry - at least not in any mainstream capacity, at the time, because there was a much bigger buy in to games, and even though there were definitely weirdo and experimental games - they were usually more robust of product.

All things considered, while I don't think it's bad, I don't understand why it's gained such popularity and isn't a bit more niche. I think the unique visual identity is doing a lot of work, and I will give credit to some of the interesting imagery and effort in making you have a such a good idea of the dystopia the characters exist within in just a couple hours, without even leaving the ship, but that said you're barely provided with much of a look into those characters who are present. What you see feels like mostly caricaturizations, and arguably some of the most important characters have the least dialog and leave the most up for interpretation. So it felt lacking.

Sword of the Sea

• Genre: Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil the way the story is presented.
• Time Played: 4:17
• Too Short/Long: Good for the type of game it is.
• Did I cry: A little bit.
• Soundtrack: Amazing. It's key to building the atmosphere of the game. 
• Why I played: I've liked all of the teams previous works, though I need to go back to Pathless because it's the only one I haven't finished.
• Jank: It's pretty much jank free besides some weird "can I land on this" and "no" via invisible walls.
• Difficulty: Practically none.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased, as I have been with all their games.
• Recommend to others: I would if it's the kind of thing you're into. All of their(Giant Squid, and Thatgamecompany) games are a bit abstract and enigmatic. They're defining examples of games as art, and definitely more art than game.
  

There isn't much to explain if you're familiar with Flower, Journey, and Abzu. It's very much in line with those. Even visually, it's pretty much like they smashed Journey and Abzu together. We like desert AND the sea, so what if the Sea was in/on the desert?

You pretty much just ride around on your hover sword and interact with the environment until you can go to the next area. There are hidden collectibles, there are upgrades, and there are even little trial trick areas. It's fun to explore and take it all in, but there isn't too much more than that. Not that it needs to be. I do think with the sword being such a focus, the game could have maybe had some more combat of some kind of variety, but obviously those aren't the types of games these people are generally trying to make. 

I didn't play Pathless which did have some combat if I recall, but maybe that's just it. I didn't play it. How many other people also skipped on it - their one game with combat? So back to what they were best known for - something you more... experience, rather than "play" in the typical sense. I mean it's still very much a game as far as how it controls, it's far from what I would call a "walking simulator" but stakes are barely existent and difficult is rather low. Finding some secret may require some sufficient skill or ingenuity though. 

I don't know if it beats out my experience with Journey, but unfortunately Journey is more of a "your mileage may vary" experience with the infrastructure. I did really enjoy Sword of the Sea though, probably a better instance of capturing the same magic completely solo though.

Pragmata

• Genre: Action/Third Person Shooter
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much.
• Time Played: 18 Hours
• Too Short/Long: A lot of people complain that it's too short to be a "full priced game", but I'd take a dozen Pragamatas over one game stuffed to the brim with filler and meaningless secondary objectives. I thought the runtime was pretty much perfect for the intensity of the gameplay. There were times I needed a break after only a an hour or two of playing because of how on-point the game requires you to be.
• Did I cry: A whole lot. Maybe not the most I've ever cried playing a video game, but if not, damn close.
• Soundtrack: The atmosphere of the game wouldn't quite hit without the soundtrack. It's very good, and it knows when to take to the sidelines. It can be somber, it can be intense. Not much to jam out to on it's own, but great for setting the scene none the less.
• Why I played: No real reason, other than a Capcom game outside their main three franchises as it's been for sometime. Seemed fun, seemed like it my evoke something familiar and be something new.
• Jank: It's a rather polished game so it's pretty jank free. There were a few moments I remember when playing thinking "I should mention this" but they must have been so minor I forgot about them.
• Difficulty: Just about right, I'd say. I played on normal and there are more difficult... difficulties, but for where I like to play it felt like it more or less matched my skill level each time, and the action was intense and took all I had, without actually failing - except in the training challenges. Which can be pretty difficult later on.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. I think this is an excellent game, maybe the best game I've played thus far this year.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend Pragmata. It's a great game with a touching narrative and unique spin on the typical third person-shooter. It makes you fully engage with it's systems, which makes it a unique experience.
  

Just to get it out of the way, I think "game timer" vs playtime gets in the way of this one again. Another game I seldom let hang, and yet my PlayStation playtime is hours after the "game timer". It might be another that doesn't count something like cutscenes, or reading notes, or time in menus. I'm not going to test each to find out, but my console timer was hours after my save data timer and I think that skews peoples perception. Or maybe people just don't engage with all a game has to offer? Reading? That's for nerds. Collecting objects? Losers. Training Sim challenges that offer significant rewards? Sweaty.

Before I even got my hands on the game I saw people chastising it for being too short. It's about the same length, if not a bit longer than Resdient Evil requiem, Capcom's other big recent release, and if you ask me, personally, a better game overall. I played that 18 hours and that was a very slow... going back and forth constantly because I'm paranoid/scared 18 hours. I imagine a good bit of that time would have been reduced if I wasn't trying to play it as safe as possible and was better at horror games.

I remember a time when people would disapprove of games being "too long". Do people forget these days? 40+ hour rpgs were mocked for being something only nerds and weebs enjoyed. The average game used to be well under 20 hours, if not under 10, and honestly without much reason to keep playing. The shift toward such an expectation of pointlessly extended runtimes is something that just irks me to the core. Especially when presented with a game like this that wastes no time at all and is just a great solid experience the whole way through. Nobody should be docking this any points for not offer value.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

• Genre: Life-Sim
• Spoiler Free Review: Sorta? I don't know what is considered spoilers in a game like this, but there are some major event screenshots included.
• Partners: Alice most of all - since she provided me with items and a dozen of the Miis I used. I also had some other friends make Miis of their tabletop characters for me to use, and of course some Miis of my friends I have previously acquired from them.
• Time Played: 90 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's solid and it's definitely one of those games you can play pretty much as much as what you want. I think I actually rolled credits closer to about 60 hours. I may still play a bit here and there.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: It has some cute sounds but nothing I'm gonna jam out to outside the game. Like Pokemon
• Why I played: Alice was really excited for it, and we had a little adventure trying to get it. It was actually pretty ridiculous, and we had to go to like 4 different place - one multiple times. I ended up playing the demo and thinking it was pretty cute and picked up another copy so we could "play together" and share some of the stuff we made.
• Jank: It's mostly pretty jank free. I'd say the most jank lies in the fact that certain controls change menu to menu, resulting in my often "miss-clicking" so to speak. Press the wrong button and doing the wrong thing.
• Difficulty: There is zero difficulty to this game. It's something you play, but isn't designed to create any kind of challenge.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty pleased. I wasn't originally interested in it at all, and ended up playing quite a bit, and will likely play some more. I ended up playing Pokopia over 125 hours before hanging it up for now, so I might play this a bit more, though I'm not sure Tomodachi Life will keep my interest quite as long - I'm pretty much just seeing the same things over and over at this point, and any remaining interest would be just creating new Miis - which I do have a lot of fun with to be fair, or doing some serious customization to my island.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend this if it's your type of game, or you find it easy to be amused by your own jokes so to speak. A lot of the game is giving them prompts to use in interactions, so it's like you're co-creating the joke because you're making them say the thing you told them to. There are a lot of fun and lolrandom interactions, and if that sounds like something you'd enjoy you should definitely go for it.
  

Unfortunately I've summarized most of the main points of the game above in some way or another. Tomodachi Life mostly has you making miis, customizing your island, and making them interact. It's basically a digital dollhouse for those who have lost the wonder of banging a couple figures together while having a two-way conversation with themselves.

Dispatch

• Genre: Visual Novel? TV Show?/Strategy
• Spoiler Free Review: Some allusions to spoilers, but mostly indirect.
• Time Played: 6 hours
• Too Short/Long: It was solid, maybe even just a little too short. I would have liked to have seen a bit more filler content, and maybe even a couple more dispatching missions. Some felt a little long, and I feel putting a couple more shorter ones in between to make sure all the characters get a bit more attention really would have hit the sweet spot.
• Did I cry: I did tear up a bit.
• Soundtrack: Great soundtrack, already acquired. Has some great synthwave backgrounds and some great closing chapter tracks as well.
• Why I played: Dispatch got a lot of praise and while I haven't played tons of Telltale games, I know this one specifically was from people involved with The Wolf Among Us, which I did enjoy a lot.
• Jank: Similar to Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, it seemed like a couple occasions the selector was stuck and I had to just press other buttons to get things to "reset" so to speak. Also trying to select a mission when there are a dozen things on screen to select and you only have second to select them isn't the most intuitive. Both are games maybe most optimal on PC.
• Difficulty: There were times the challenges seemed pretty difficult, I failed a few hacking scenarios and wasn't necessarily able to save everyone every mission, but I didn't fail a mission and don't know if you can? I know you can turn off the ability to fail hacking if that's too hard - and it is, arguably the hardest part.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased with Dispatch. I probably liked it a good bit more than I thought I would. 
• Recommend to others: I definitely would, with the caveat that it's probably not for everyone. It can be a bit crude at times, and it feels like the obvious thing to say, but if you like stuff like The Boys or Invincible, this is right in line with them.
  

To elaborate on that, Dispatch is right in line with a more wholesome version of The Boys and Invincible. Both of those are crude, juvenile and cynical takes on subversive superheroes. Dispatch is basically the same thing but far less cynical. It know how to have a good time and let you enjoy the moment. The world that exists outside our story isn't inherently depressing and rotten. The heroes are "true heroes". Even their Super Man analog that is really just a Omni Man except what if he was dumb and not evil - at worse he considers doing bad things just because he's super depressed, a "take the whole world with me" type scenario but he more or less just says that as an offhanded comment rather than actually considering it... I think.

All that said, the majority of the cast aren't heroes. They're villains who have been given a second chance but aren't exactly having the best time of it. This is why Dispatch succeeds in still having a lot of the same abrasive and crude aspects you see in stuff like Invincible and the Boys, and yet somehow manages to be wholesome about it. These are people who have a bad history who are trying to be better, but they haven't shed their rough exterior and bad attitudes.

This made it really fun to watch them grow into their new roles. This is where I think Dispatch misses the mark a little bit though, because for the sake of keeping the story moving along at a more or less brisk pace, you aren't offered enough time to sit with any of these moments before things are shifted, before the pot needs to be stirred. So there is a little bit of emotional whiplash there. That's why I think the game would have benefitted from just a little bit more of a filler of doing some more or less standard dispatching mission gameplay with maybe a little filler scene between, here and there.

 

I'm not entirely sure how much the missions actually have an affect on the game. I never fully failed, so I don't know if you can, and I don't know if doing better or worse affects and aspects of the story, dialog, or interactions, but I would be surprised if it didn't, as it seemed to have a good number of variables for you to change up the scenes. The dispatching is fun, especially when you get more experience with it and get better with it. Which is another reason I wish there were maybe a couple more smaller/shorter missions sprinkled throughout.

All and all a really good game, with a fun story and set of characters though. I really enjoyed it.

Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

• Genre: Visual Novel
• Spoiler Free Review: Not entirely, it's mostly story, so hard to not talk about that.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: I choked up a couple times, maybe got moistened eyes.
• Soundtrack: Really good. Definitely need to acquire.
• Why I played: It just looked like a cute game, and even though I haven't played it, I always hear/see how Red Strings Club is so great and it's made by the same people. I also like witches and thought the card making might be neat.
• Jank: I played it on Switch and it was quite a bit janky when it came to the controls. You wouldn't think so, but the pointer would often get stuck and instead of being able to just use left/right to select things, I would have to move it via free movement of the right stick. This wasn't a consistent issue, so I know it wasn't meant to function that way. A minor inconvenience all-in-all but you would think something with so few controls would have the issue.
• Difficulty: Zero. There is no way to lose.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Both pleased and disappointed. I really liked it at first but it kind of diminished as it went on.
• Recommend to others: Maybe? I still really like the card creating aspect and actually wish there was more to do in that regard. Story options may affect perception and the game is certainly interesting. It's a hard call.
  

Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a game where you play as an exiled Witch and create your own divination cards - many story paths/elements are dictated by your readings. It's is kind of an odd case because I feel like it's both good and bad. Sometimes the writing is clever, cute, fun. Sometimes it's crude, tactless, amateur. The mechanics are fun and neat, but restrictive and confining. Besides the mechanics behind the choices you make, at least in my playthough, I was barely provided with enough resources to continue making cards I wanted to make. Even toward the very end of the game.

Silent Hill f

• Genre: Survival Horror
• Spoiler Free Review: No, all the parts I want to talk about are spoilers, and the more I go on, the more overtly spoilery it'll get.
• Time Played: ~40 Hours, kind of hard to tell because PlayStation timer and in-game timer are dramatically different. I don't feel I left the game idle too long, but I noticed the game doesn't actually count any time spent in menus, reading the journal and documents and such, which in my perspective, is actually a large part of the game, that I do count.
• Too Short/Long: Too long if you really wanna delve into the story, that is, play it multiple times. I was looking at closer to 15 hours for a single playthrough. They don't do enough to mix things up or shorten replays. There was an option to skip one section that takes a few minutes in subsequent playthroughs, but it doesn't do much to shave off time overall. Apparently it was added later, maybe people just complained that part was tedious? But I found running through corridors to do the same sections over and over again more tedious.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Perfectly eerie where it needs to be, great outros, and while a bit of a shift from standard Silent Hill fare, it's still pretty good and even makes children chanting a banger.
• Why I played: I'd never otherwise work up the courage to play a Silent Hill game if it weren't for seeing some of the cool stuff in this game while my wife was playing. She played it when it came out, but after giving Resident Evil requiem a shot, I felt up to the task.
• Jank: It's got some time where responses don't seem to go perfectly and it's controls are a bit clunky at times, but both of these complaints are minor, it's not really that janky.
• Difficulty: It's difficult in the way a horror game is meant to be, like it's scary, and things can more or less kill you right away if you're not ready for it, but it's not punishing at all, and on the standard difficulties isn't that hard overall.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm actually very pleased with this. I still found it harder to play than an average game due to the horror element more than anything else. The paranoia I have, having to check every corner, concerned something is going to get me every step of the way. It definitely hinders the experience for me a bit, but I still enjoyed it.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would, especially if you have any interest in the mid-20th century rural Japanese aesthetic, or Japanese folklore, or Japanese style horror. It nails them all. I'm also sure that anyone who gets any enjoyment out of the horror elements would find a lot more to love here.
  

Since I tanked Resident Evil Requiem, and was still in a bit of a rut of what I personally wanted to play, I figured I'd maybe try tackling Silent Hill f as well. I of course had already seen a good bit of gameplay when Alice played it and saw some pretty cool stuff. Had I not seen the cool stuff, I probably still wouldn't have ever considered touching this.

Compared to Resident Evil, I would say that some of the more tense moments in Resident Evil were actually more tense - because of what it has you do and the fact you could instantly die, and you legitimately were against things you couldn't kill, or you could more easily get overwhelmed. So Resident Evil was more tense from a gameplay perspective, for sure, and one thing it did have going for it in the horror aspect - for better or worse, was it had more "dark and scary" places. Obviously relying on the fear of what you can't see is something many if not most horror games do, and Resident Evil relies a bit more on dark - it has less of a supernatural element, whereas Silent Hill can just make things be there that weren't before. Or perhaps worse, make things just disappear all the same.

Resident Evil requiem

• Genre: Survival Horror/Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah
• Time Played: 16:50
• Too Short/Long: It was longer than I expected, having heard a bunch of people say they played it for "about 10 hours". Now my "Time Played" is based off the timer they give at the end, and with deaths, reloads, etc, and I don't know if menus/cutscenes count, regardless it's probably another hour or so - as my PlayStation shows 18 hours.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's okay. As most of the sound is atmospheric and to set the mood, it is appropriate, but it's not a soundtrack I'm going to hunt down to listen to.
• Why I played: My wife has been obsessed with this game. For the month following it's release, she played almost every day. Each day we were home, with no prior engagements. She tried to take small breaks so she wouldn't burn herself out, but ultimate returned to the game time and time again. She'd attempt to engage me in Resident Evil discussions which I could not really partake in except with speculative insight and second hand experience. She absolutely loved this game, and even spoke to how it changed her perspective on gaming as a whole.
  
  Since I played nearly 200 hours of Pokopia, I've been meandering on what to play. Sure I could do other things, but I felt most like playing a game at times, but few things were scratching the itch. I weirdly landed on Yoku's Island Express a bit, but otherwise maybe played an hour-two tops of maybe 30 different games. Since I was so undecided, I thought it might be a good opportunity to invest some time into a game she held to such high regard and has not been able to stop talking about for a month.
• Jank: This is a pretty polished game. If there is any jank I even thought of it was so seldom or infrequent that I can't recall any at this time.
• Difficulty: I played on Modern mode and it wasn't too difficult. I may have died a couple times due to carelessness, but I also spent a lot of time Conserving Ammo(as Grace) and playing it safe. When it came to boss fights, they were mostly pretty easy. Though some aspect of classic probably round it out a bit, this genre isn't my forte and I needed whatever I could to get through it. I even considered playing it on easy, but it probably would have been way too easy. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: Overall I'm pleased with what it offered and it was fun. I probably wouldn't have played it of my own accord, or even if Alice liked it just a bit less and only played through it 3 times, instead of 5 times.
• Recommend to others: I'm not in a place of recommending this type of game to anyone, but I would say it's a good enough game that if anyone is a fan of the series, there is little reason to skip this one.
  

I am not really a fan of the Resident Evil series. I have Resident Evil 4 because that was such a revolutionary game when it was released, but I never quite finished it. I never went to the Castle - though I think I only stopped just short of it. So really, this is the only... oh, it's actually the third Resident Evil game I have finished. I completed The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii. The on-rails shooters that play abbreviated chapters from throughout many of the games up til that point, which also feature some original content leading up to the events of Resident Evil 4.

Other than that, I haven't really played any "real" Resident Evil game to any extent, outside maybe a demo or two, and considering the Chronicles games were the better part of twenty years ago, and played mostly for the novelty of the on-rails shooter on a platform that made that genre easy to adapt, I haven't really invested much into the series as I usually can't stand to play horror games. I'm usually too nervous to advance, and am constantly doubling back, saving over a save I just made, too filled with anxiety to comfortably play. The aforementioned entries to the series have more of an action approach, than horror, and even requiem maintains that for at least half of the game.

I think Resident Evil requiem is largely for the fans. There seem to be a lot of references and easter eggs for the long-term, dedicated fans. Stand-alone it's gameplay is fine, but the story only just manages to stand on it's own, and even then I have some assistance as someone who isn't entirely oblivious to the world of Resident Evil. Maybe if I was more dedicated the game would have meant more to me, as is, it was serviceable, and even if I wouldn't have approached it on my own, I don't feel like I wasted my time having played it.

Yoku's Island Express

• Genre: Pinball/Metoidvania
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoiler, so yeah.
• Time Played: 11 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's good.
• Did I cry: Nah
• Soundtrack: It's fine for it's settings but nothing to really jam to.
• Why I played: A lot of "Metroidvania" and Pinball-video game spaces alike mention the game in a rather positive light. Definitely seemed interesting/different, and I like pinball as a mechanic.
• Jank: It's not too bad, but there were some points where things were stuck, not in a broken way, just in a... ugh this shouldn't happen way.
• Difficulty: Mostly it's not too difficult, but there are times when getting your ball exactly where you need it feels more difficult than it should be. You also get an ability later on that is very hard to control precisely, despite many challenges with it requiring very precise control.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Overall I'm pretty pleased, it was fun, and different, and inspired me to play some other pinball-video games.
• Recommend to others: It's an easy recommend for anyone that actually likes pinball plus the exploration aspect of exploratory action platformers, as the "action" is light unless you consider flipping flippers action, and the platforming is... well I mean the whole point is to get the ball onto different platforms in a sense, but it's not exactly the same kind of "platforming". There is no jump button, but obviously you "jump" via flippers and such.
  

Yoku's Island Express isn't necessarily the first attempt at a Pinball-esque adventure game, but it is one of only a few I can think of, and perhaps the only one fitting precisely into it's genre. It's pretty good. Besides a few sections that get a little frustrating for the ball not going exactly where you want, it pretty much meets all expectations. It helps you do have a little direct control over the ball as technically Yoku is a little beetle pushing the ball around. Though, most of the time the ball is yanking Yoku.

I would say I'm a little disappointed at the 100% completion ending(which I don't think you technically can get before the normal ending), as I mostly was there by the end of the game and went back in just to turn in that last bit. I guess it's just a cute little bonus, but for all the work for this whole other aspect of the game - throughout the whole game, I expected a bit more. Overall though, fun and pretty neat and different game.

Pokémon Pokopia

• Genre: Life-Sim Sandbox game?
• Spoiler Free Review: Allusions to potential spoilers, gameplay, unlocks, etc.
• Time Played: ~50 Hours
• Too Short/Long: This is probably one of those games that can greatly vary depending on what you want to do. I didn't B-line the main story, I "casually" enjoyed my progress as I made it and did activities as they were made available to me while engaging with the whole breadth of the game. So for me, it felt just right.
• Did I cry: I got just a little watery eyed at one point.
• Soundtrack: It's fine. It's cute. It's just a little more repetitive than I'd prefer, and considering they have dozens of existing Pokémon tracks in the form of collectable CDs and various ways to play them, you think one would be as a radio for you, the player, but no, they only come through in the lower quality output of the in-game music playing items. There are some neat reprises of classic Pokémon melodies though.
• Why I played: I honestly only snagged it out of FOMO. It looked like something people were talking about and already really liking prior to actual release, and I saw just enough things that made me want to give it a try. I thought going in to it, it was going to be New Horizons 2.0 and I would kind of regret getting it just because it was something everyone else was playing.
• Jank: Surprisingly jank-light. Not free. There are some controls that could be a little bit more refined. I can't count the times I removed or broke something I didn't want to, or placed something incorrectly. There are supposedly some issues with Pokémon "despawning", which I may have experienced a couple times but was resolvable, but apparently certain situations it's not. Just some other general funkiness. It's to be expected with a game of this type. The more room for error the more error there will be, and there is a surprisingly large amount of stuff in this game and it's just impressive how it handles it.
• Difficulty: It's hard to say this is "difficult" in any capacity, so this will be rated more on tedium. Is it tedious? Not really. Sometimes, but not that much. I could see some quality of life improvements that give you more storage/remote /universal access, but that's about it. There are several different "main areas" in the game, and pretty much the only time the game needs to load is going between them, and sometimes, I have items I need in a storage in one of those different areas, so I have to visit an area just to grab the item and return back to where I am playing. That's a little tedious.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased. I had way more fun with this game than I expected I would. I may even continue playing it a bit even though I finished the story. This might be one of those games some people say "only truly starts when you finish the story", which I can understand why even if I don't agree, depending on what you're looking for getting into it.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would highly recommend it to anyone who likes any combination of Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Minecraft(or Minecraft contemporaries like Terraria or Dragon Quest Builders). In fact, I'm a bit disappointed I didn't see more people I know jumping into this game immediately. I think timing is a factor, but I've expressed my disappointment with New Horizons, and this is just the complete opposite experience for me, and yet there was a time where practically anyone I knew with a Switch was playing Animal Crossing. It helps it came out right at the start of the pandemic in 2020, but like I said - timing.

I just don't know where to begin with Pokémon Pokopia as it exceeded my expectations at almost every turn. It was such a joy to play. I'm not much of a "sandbox" style game player. I enjoyed Breath of the Wild more than Tears of the Kingdom. I played Animal Crossing until I rolled credits. I played Terraria until I rolled credits. I played Starbound until I rolled credits. I never cared for Minecraft, at all.

Yars Rising

• Genre: Platforming Action (Metroidvania), Arcade
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, just mechanical progression shared and such. The story isn't the draw anyway.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's solid.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Actually way better than I expected going in. It's a pretty awesome soundtrack with a lot of original vocal tracks.
• Why I played: I've been playing Panzer Dragoon Saga here and there and while I was playing I wanted to play Panzer Dragoon(not Saga), but diverted to the 2011 Yar's Revenge which is also an on-rails shooter, but then was like "Wait don't I have some kind of Yars-themed Metroidvania and I decided to check this out.
• Jank: It's got a little jank with the controls not feeling 100% the way they're supposed to. Other than that I don't think there is anything.
• Difficulty: This one is a roller coaster. Because of the original Yars Revenge style arcade challenges, it has moments where it's very difficult. By default it leaves a prompt for "Invincible Yar" for arcade sections - if you lose a couple times it'll prompt you at each challenge. I turned this off myself, so I can't speak for how much "easier" the game makes it. I imagine some of those arcade challenges might even be a little difficult even when invincible. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty please with this, I enjoyed it way more than I expected.
• Recommend to others: I'm not entirely sure I would go out of my way to. It's not like I know a lot of people clamoring for more Yars Revenge content in 2026. It's kind of an odd weird out of place game that feels like it's made by a bunch of of 50+ aged developers who want to make a game to appeal to the 15-35 age group who aren't into classic Atari games enough.
  

Yars Rising surprised me, I enjoyed it a lot. As a stand-alone metroidvania, it's not too much, it's pretty much the basics at bare-minimum with serviceable game play, often cringy but not entirely too bad dialog, in near-stock with just enough going on to not look too bland environments. It's one of a million in the genre, especially those in the breadth of recent indie metroidvania games.

Then there is the music, the music is stellar enough that it may have kept me playing on it's own. Good music can really elevate an experience in a video game. Not necessarily make a bad one enjoyable, but make a somewhat enjoyable one enjoyable enough to keep playing, or otherwise make a good game a great experience.

Then there is the "hacking", which is performed by playing various challenges that are - for the most part, just playing the original Yars Revenge, each with a condition, goal, modifier, etc. Sometimes you're playing a version inspired by another Atari game entirely. Some of these are extremely difficult, but besides turning invincible mode on, you also have a degree of skill customization that allows you to equip abilities for both the overworld game play, and the hacking.

And that's another point. The game isn't just a Yar game, it's an Atari game. It's filled with references to other Atari franchises - primarily in it's boss battles. As you progress, or once you've finished the game, you've unlocked dozen more of the Arcade-style challenges just to play from the main menu sans equipable skills. So when you're done with the adventure, you're still left with more straight-forward Yar game. At the very least, it's a good value.