Beast of Reincarnation

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review:  Pretty much.
• Time Played: 32 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It probably would have been perfect had I not done so much backtracking to look for things it turns out you get in abundance.
• Did I cry: Multiple times.
• Soundtrack: Amazing. It's not quite on the level of certain vocal osts of similar ilk, it's a little more repetitive in a way that makes it more atmospheric background music, but it's still really good and I'm comparing it to some of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
• Why I played: Dog. A lot of people make a big deal about this being a non-Pokemon game by Gamefreak, but they've always made non-pokemon games and I've played most of them. This one just got attention because it doesn't look like a silly random indie title.
• Jank: It's kind of... very janky. There are bugs and here and there that are pretty minor - my sword was invisible until the next time I fast traveled. Texture pop-in or... pop-out even? Invisible walls and infinite falling pits galore. To be fair those last two are usually when you're trying to access the more or less obvious out-of-bounds areas of the game, but sometimes the "infinite falling" just happens when a tree branch meets a fence at an angle and you decide to land between them. It only takes a couple seconds to respawn nearby but it happens more than it should.
• Difficulty: It's a bit of a mix. It's pretty difficult early on, but got pretty easy later. Which sure, experience and skill alone could do, but I think I out-leveled the later content. I don't know if the game leaned to in designing for New Game + or what, because there were still so many skill I never got, or fully leveled up. I barely fully leveled up any skills, putting in my points into my best efforts to at least acquire one of each. In theory that would give me plenty to still earn in a New Game +... but I don't think a game should be designed around that. Personally.
• Something I liked: I realized that a lot of my longer reviews end up nitpicking aspects of the game just because I spent more time with it and am "analyzing" the game so to speak. It can make it seem like I didn't like the game. Also I might not get a chance to slip it in naturally. So we'll see if this section fits in moving forward. I liked Koo, obviously. The grappling while only a "partial" grapple mechanic had so many grapple points it still felt pretty good, you could also create grapple points both in and out of combat, even Koo can! The parrying mechanics actually felt really good as enemy attacks were almost always well telegraphed. Once getting enough abilities I liked the combo-into-specials system a lot.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased, despite some sections where I felt it drag, despite some lack luster aspects, despite some jank and lack of polish, I loved the game.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would - especially to those who like the Nier games, or action games that lean heavy into parry-mechanics.
  

Beast of Reincarnation is what I would call a Near-Nier. The third of it's ilk after Stellar Blade and Ultra Age. There could be more I supposed, but I would hope to know about them. I keep up with a lot of games, but obviously I can't play them all and I could have seen something that didn't look like a Near-Nier, but feels like a Near-Nier.

I'm sure there are a lot of frenetic action games that could potentially feel like Nier, but not really feel like Nier - if you know what I mean. Regardless, it's possibly my favorite genre. The Nier games are pretty high up in my list of favorite games of all time, and these games fill a void for me. I wouldn't want Nier games just pumped out without care every couple years, but a game that is Nier-like, a "we changed it up a bit", something that captures the mood and atmosphere, recognizing some of the good aspects and makes an attempt to appeal to that - that's what fills the void.

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.

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.

Codename: Ocean Keeper

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 15-20 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's about right.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It has some good tracks but nothing I'm going to seek out to listen to on it's own.
• Why I played: It looked cool, had a spider mech.
• Jank: The Switch version is definitely a little janky and just decides to randomly crash. I might have finished the game a bit sooner if not for that.
• Difficulty: It's got rougelite progression where you get upgrades as you play and get further and as you get more upgrades, it's not too difficult.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased enough.
• Recommend to others: I wouldn't exactly go out of my way. It's a perfectly serviceable game and entertained me, similar games that this one may have taken inspiration from like... Dome Keeper and Wall World might be more worth it to some.
  

Hey, finally played a game made in the past decade this year. At first it was just kind of a filler game because I wasn't sure what to play and was like "oh I got that, let me check that out" and ended up getting hooked on the gameplay loop.

Codename: Ocean Keeper, also known as Ocean Keeper: Dome Survivor on Steam is almost definitely inspired by the above mentioned games. I've only played Wall World, but I've also seen Dome Keeper, and I've seen a couple other similar games, but this one is pretty new by comparison. It has a cool mech though and a decent enough amount of options for weapons and upgrades that I opted to sink my time into this one.

You have a minute and a half between waves of enemies that are progressively more deadly, during which you need to find a mine, do some mining, use minerals to upgrade your stuff so you can survive more waves of enemies. Pretty simple. There are some light puzzle areas that are story related and a little bit of the random upgrades per run mechanic, but both are pretty much the lightest they could be without not existing. I would have liked to have seen larger timers or a timer pause so they could maybe do more intricate or just more of the little puzzle areas, but there are only a handful of them.

GO THERE

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Nothing to spoil.
• Time Played: <1 hour
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty short.
• Soundtrack: It has some cute tracks, but it's only a few.
• Why I played: I was gifted it for my birthday, thanks Rey pt. 2!
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a pretty simple and straight forward game, not much to jank up.
• Difficulty: A little bit more difficult than SHE SAVE, but only a little, maybe just because of being a little bit more complicated.
• Recommend to others: Still probably won't go out of my way to with this one, but it's also a cute little game and I'll keep an eye on what else the dev may do in the future.

In this game you have to GO THERE. There is where there is a like Tori Gate with the dragonest dragon, but also the dragons are the friends you make along the way. Much like SHE SAVE, it's just a simple boss rush game with a handful of stages, but in this one your character mostly heals and has a piddly little attack, but you gain the friendship of the dragons you fight and can use a couple of their abilities and switch between them in battle as you progress. This obviously appeals to me very much and is even more of an appropriate game to have played on my birthday.

SHE SAVE

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Nothing to spoil.
• Time Played: <1 hour
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty short.
• Soundtrack: It has some cute tracks, but it's only a few.
• Why I played: I was gifted it for my birthday, thanks Rey!
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a pretty simple and straight forward game, not much to jank up.
• Difficulty: It's not too difficult and I only had to retry a battle or two, but it has some challenges after you beat the game that are really difficult.
• Recommend to others: Probably won't go out of my way to, but it's a cute little game and I'll keep an eye on what else the dev may do in the future.

She save, she protect, she attack, she heal. She save is just a little game with very cute/cool pixel art. You play as a girl and do kind of a boss-rush things where you fight big screen covering dragons. I kinda love the idea and it would be cool to see a more fleshed boss, but I also really appreciate the art and the music was cute too. A fun little birthday bonus!

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess

• Genre: Action/Tower Defense
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~25
• Too Short/Long: It felt a little long because it expects you to replay levels a lot.
• Soundtrack: For a game where dancing is so central to its theme, I kind of expected a better soundtrack overall. Some of the games later tracks are great though.
• Why I played: Weeb.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: For the most part it's solid. Sometimes thing don't connect when they feel like they should, and encountered a couple graphic/sound glitches that quickly resolved.
• Difficulty: It's a little tough at times. I think tower defense games have to be a little bit to be engaging. As a hybrid, each aspect was too tough on it's own, but I guess that means it was well balanced.
• Recommend to others: I'm a bit in the middle for this one. I'd only recommend it to people who specifically like japanese folklore stuff and would also be interested in a hybrid character action/tower defense game.

Kunitsu-Gami is a rare new Capcom IP in the year 2025. Okay well technically it came out last year, but it's still surprising from a company that has gone from frequently making all new games to relying almost exclusively on it's strongest selling franchises. While I don't think Kunitsu-Gami is going to blow away many people, I do hope it does well enough to convince Capcom it was worth it.

There is a specific flow to Kunitsu-Gami's gameplay and while I enjoy it, it's repetitious nature does not benefit it. Most levels have you spending your time frantically running around to purify the town and repairs defenses in the time you have before the defense phase, before you're subject to a period where you can only fight back and order/reposition your units. Some levels mix up with gimmicks, and I think each gimmick is used at least twice, but I still feel like there should have been more use of some of these gimmicks as too many levels felt samey.

Besides the bulk of the gameplay, there is also a little bit of town management, but there isn't really any customization. Each level acts as a little hub once beaten, and it's just assigning people to repairs so you eventually unlock more skill points or collectables, you just have to play a level or two and return to unlock regards, rinse and repeat. Maybe it's better then just spending some misc currency to buy upgrades/unlocks, and it's nice to flesh out the environment of the game, but it kind of just felt like a hassle. Like I was walking around to go to places that would just be a menu option, and doing it dozens upon dozens of times didn't help with the game feeling repetitive.

The game does lean hard into it's style. The environments are maybe a little generic, as they are intended to just be historical Japanese settings, but the character/costume design, the items, and all the things that flavor the world are handled with care. Overall it's pretty unique in that regard.

The story is a bit vague in it's presentation as none of the characters really have any dialog. Most of the story is short sequences of interactions and gesturing. Basically, the land is corrupt/defiled and you are on a mission to purify it.

It's another one to mark down as a PS2-ass game I've played this year. That description has kind of expanded to mean anywhere from like PSX-PS3, but it fits there solidly. One, it's a time when Capcom was actually making new games outside it's top four franchises. Two, it seems like it's just kind of a weird little experiment of a game. Three, it's a bit more simple in it's execution, so it just feels more like a game that would have come out twenty years ago. I don't mean that as a bad thing, I never do. It's just a difference in how games were made versus how they are currently made, and I keep going back to it, so there is definitely something about the straightforwardness of "this is what this game is" that appeals to me.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes
• Time Played: 9 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right for this one. Some individual levels or sections might have gone a little long, but overall game length was solid.
• Soundtrack: It has some bangers. Even just some of the more generic "music playing while not much is happening" is catchy.
• Why I played: Back in the day I really liked the first No More Heroes, and I started the original version of No More Heroes 2 for Wii right when it came out, but it just didn't grab me like the first. I've been wanting to play the newer games and wanted to finish this first.
• Did I cry: Not exactly the type of game to get emotional to.
• Jank: There is definitely some jank. Some jank that is arguably native to a lot of motion-control oriented game and specifically a lot of 3rd party Wii games. Even though modern versions have standard controls and I used those, you can still feel where it's coming from. The game is not polished and there is jank in every aspect of it. It's very rough around the edges and hasn't aged incredibly.
• Difficulty: The difficulty swings from mind-numbingly easy to frustratingly difficult at various points. The most difficult aspects though are arguably some of the jank, but maybe jank inherent to the games design itself. Stun-lock that you can't react to or counter in any way that happens in a few battles is maybe the worst offender as far as difficulty goes.
• Recommend to others: I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't already into No More Heroes. I'm not sure it's much better than the first, if at all. It's been a long time for a direct comparison, but it was more memorable for being what it was at the time. I don't think 2 really added anything the first didn't have. Other than the NES style mini-games.
  

I needed something low effort and just fun to play. No More Heroes is mostly that. I think it was randomly brought up in a conversation a couple days before I decided to play it and just thought to myself "I should play that". I was otherwise in-between games, so it worked out perfectly in the moment.

No More Heroes as a series is one of those games I call a "gamer's game", and when I say that, I don't mean something every person who likes games will like, but is something made specifically for people who likes games. It's too self-referential in the culture. Not just games, but other general media and pop culture things. Anime has really taken off in the past decade but when the first No More Heroes came out, it was a bit more niche of a hobby in the west, and people who had anime girls all over their house were only highest level of otaku. Now you can't go to youtube's home page without seeing Travis Touchdowns semi-permanent motel room in the background of someone's video.

Besides anime, there's shmups, nes-esque mini games, Star Wars references, wrestling, etc. etc. - there is no moment in the game that isn't referencing something else. It's crude, brash, and degenerate. Unabashedly so, which at least makes it a bit more charming than media that takes itself more seriously.

In the end 2 is just more of the same and while it was fun to play to get ready for some of the more modern iterations, it's nothing too special on it's own.

Slitterhead

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: A little bit of spoilers concerning how mechanics tie into the story.
• Time Played: 19 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Just a little too long, maybe because I wanted to 100% it and had to replay some sections, but also, it has you kind of replay some sections anyway. But really, it's only a couple hours too long tops, minor complaint.
• Soundtrack: The soundtrack is pretty good. I had uploaded the soundtrack prior to playing because I wasn't sure when I was really going to get into it, and any time a track was playing from this, it has my wife say "What is this?" out of interest. The stylings of Akira Yamaoka are clearly represented.
• Why I played: I honestly forget what made me want to play this. The gruesome gorefest it is makes it very near a horror game. It's definitely horror-themed, but it's not a "horror" game in the traditional sense, it doesn't try to scare you(maybe gross you out) and you're generally too powerful to build up tension anyway.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: It's a little janky as it feels like a 20 year old game.
• Difficulty: It's mostly pretty easy, but toward the end I do feel the game really ramps it up.
• Recommend to others: It's a weird one. I'd recommend it to people who want a simpler and more linear experience than most modern games provide. If you're nostalgic for a different time in gaming other than just that defined by pixels or low-res textures. As long as you don't have a weak stomach.

It's not the first time this year, and looking at what I want to play in the near future, might not be the last time this year, I play some PS2/3 ass new game. It feels weird to describe an era in which I was almost, if not a full adult for as something nostalgic, but nobody saw anything unusual about SNES, PSX, N64, etc being nostalgic in 2015, or even before that. Shoot I feel like SNES games were being called retro as early as the mid 2000s. By that standard, the earliest PS4 titles are "retro"

Slitterhead is a new game, less than a year old, but it feels like something made ~20 years ago. Like it's just been sitting in a vault, all but completed, and since it was 2025 they made sure it matched todays specs, to a degree anyway, and then released it. It's not always the prettiest game, and I don't say that just because of the grotesque imagery.

Monster Hunter Wilds

• Genre: Action.
• Spoiler Free Review: I guess it is, but who cares. Here is a spoiler. The story is terrible and the characters are worse.
• Time Played: 32 Hours.
• Too Short/Long: Time is probably right for where I am in the game. 
• Soundtrack: Not that Monster Hunter has always been a contender for sweet music, but I felt it lacked even more than usual in this one. The only time I even remember music playing was the final battle of the main story and it was so damn loud and bombastic, rather than epic and moving.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Eh... I don't wanna say disappointed, but... I guess I am.
• Why I played: I've played most Monster Hunter games, maybe not every version of every monster hunter game, and I never went back for the extra stuff in Iceborne or Sunbreak, but generally speaking I am a fan of the series.
• Did I cry: No, in fact I don't think this game manage to make me feel any significant emotion.
• Jank: Damn does it have some jank when it comes to the UI. Not every Monster Hunter has had the same menus, but this one definitely made the most changes and I'd dare say exclusively for the worse.
• Difficulty: I think the difficulty is about what you'd expect for a Monster Hunter game. Some of the more general aspects of it are easier, since you can get right back into the fights right away, it can feel like less of a slog. By the same measure, the discrepancy in which you take damage is insane. I just feel like I should be able to tank a hit or two without having to heal between each hit.
• Recommend to others: I mean I guess if you like Monster Hunter you'll like this, but I'd sooner recommend Rise or World to a new player who didn't just want to play the so-called "Latest and Greatest". Monster Hunter Stories 2 is still the best Monster Hunter game overall though.

I'm so tired of Monster Hunter Wilds, I don't even want to write this. I'm not necessarily "fully done" Monster Hunter Wilds. I usually aim for more or less 100%ing a game. Or rather completing the bulk of the primary content. I'm conceding a bit prior to finishing the "High Rank" stuff. But I did get the credit roll, and for all intense and purposes I "beat the game". Some people specifically refer to high-rank as "post-game" too, further establishing that the game is finished.

It's not typical of me to stop playing a game at this point though. It's just that as we go into this weekened and I look at what I want to spend it doing, I realize I have a literal zero interest in playing Monster Hunter Wilds. I don't even necessarily have another game lined up, and so I may spend the weekend sampling things until something really catches my interest. I just know I don't want to play Wilds. Which is unfortunate. It's not a bad game. It can be really fun, and there are aspects of it I really appreciate. I appreciate there is a little bit more customization than normal. I appreciate how some of the weapons function in ways that didn't really interest me before. I like the wounds and wound attacks.

UFO Robot Grendizer - The Feast of Wolves

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review: Yeah, unless you look at the screenshots too closely.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It feels about right.
• Soundtrack: There are some classic tunes when the action is going on, something I'm sure is nostalgic for fans, but either way reminiscent of old timey action super robots, but nothing mind blowing. Interestingly there is no music when nothing is happening, so you get to hear a lot of Grendizer's feet stomping. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased actually, despite it's jank.
• Why I played: A handful of mech games came out last year, in fact another that featured Grendizer - Megaton Musashi. I often tell people I'm more of a "mech video game" person than mech anime person. Here you have the best of both worlds.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I think anyone I would truly recommend it to has already played it. It's also too broken and too budget for me to really want to go out on a limb here. But if I ever hear someone mention liking Grendizer, likely the first thing I will then ask them is, "Did you play The Feast of Wolves game?"

Grendizer surprised me a good bit. Not that I expected it to be bad, which in some senses, it really was, but I didn't expect to enjoy it quite so much. I thought the combat would be a bit more basic, and I didn't expect as much variety as they provided me with outside the standard gameplay.

After playing a good chunk of Gundam Breakers 4 and Megaton Musashi this past year, I expected something more along the lines of them. A pretty basic combat system where I just spam things as much as possible, in a linear path or single combat arena. Nope, instead Grendizer offers a pretty unique enemy "shield" that forces you to alternate your attacks in a less spammy way. It also offer some, maybe simple, but challenges none the less, that require you to run around, act quick, use ranged attacks, etc. If that wasn't enough, between stages you're likely to get a shoot 'em up or even on-rails shooter sequence. I think in at least one instance, both back to back. They're not so involved or long that they detract from the main game, but not so simple they feel pointless. It's a good balance when compared to the rest of what the game has to offer.

Divine Dynamo Flamefrit

• Genre: Action
• Time Played: 2 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Fine for what it is. It's a little clunky so much longer and it would have worn out it's welcome. If it was smoother, then I would have wanted more.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm happy it exists.
• Why I played: Why wouldn't I play? I pretty much play anything Inti-Creates makes, but this little throwback was practically made for me.
• Recommend to others: Not really going to recommend this one. It's a bit short, a bit rough around the ages. 

Divine Dynamo Flamefrit was announced(?) as an April Fools joke, and the joke was it is real. I believe it was a semi-promotional stunrt for Card-en-Ciel, I saw something about it coming with preorders, which in hindsight, I should have gotten, because I do plan to get Card-en-Ciel.

But it's not much more than that. It's a fun little love letter to some SNES and more specifically GBA style action games and mecha, specifically Super Robot media in general. All things I like, so I really appreciated it, but it's also clear it's just a little bonus. It's not a full game in it's own. It only took my 2 hours because 2 of the boss battles were really difficult and I had to replay them a dozen or so times each. If you're better at game than me, it might only take you a little more than an hour to blow through it. 

It's a pretty cute little game, and maybe now when I go to play Card-en-Ciel, I'll have more an attachment to the references to this, or have context for something I wouldn't have otherwise.

Stellar Blade

• Genre: Action
• Time Played: 50 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Pretty much just right, could have trimmed the time a little if some areas weren't so unnecessarily large.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased with it.
• Why I played: Once it was released I kept hearing that it was like Nier and looked a bit into it myself and it just made me want to play more and more.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend Stellar Blade. It was a really good game.

Stellar Blade is definitely a Nier-like, or Near-Nier as my wife coined. Off the top of my head, I have only played one other game so directly and blatantly inspired by Nier, and that would be Ultra Age, which I loved, and I loved this. It might not be one of the games I love the most, but it's like the next tier. Just on the outside of that range where I would consider it one of my absolute favorites.

It comes up short in aspects I wish it was more like Nier, with some more variation in the game play that I really thought they were going to use, some more varied locations and boss fights that really feel different. It also feels like every area is just too big and there is too much and they go on just for the sake of it. They do have some gun-only sequences by maybe they didn't click with me much because they're kinda survival-horror style, which I don't do well. But hey, there is fishing.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like they make bad use of the space, and don't give you variety in exploration. The amount of side quests feels about right, and what they do, is very polished. I just felt like like each zone was bigger than necessary. I felt like I got plenty of time - more than necessary, to fight each different type of enemy in each different type of situation.

The combat is really good, so, it didn't really wear out it's welcome, but it did take awhile - like, half the game, before I really synergized with the combat. It could benefit from being just a touch more forgiving with the timing. In a game based around parries, and more or less perfect timing, the window for that perfect timing could be a little more open considering the dozens upon dozens of attack patterns there are in the game, and every enemy has several, bosses several more, and some will look very similar, so getting the timing down just perfect is quite the task. They could have telegraphed a little more, or gave you a little bit more breathing room. I would have been fine with that.

But it mostly clicked, and I had a really fun time with it.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

• Genre: Action
• Time Played: 38 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too long, because you have to replay many missions at least 3 times to see everything, but just right... maybe too short if you were just fine with one ending and missing a good deal of content.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm super happy with this. I am of course super happy to see From Software making a mech game again, but it's also probably the best Armored Core.
• Why I played: I've always been an Armored Core fan and constantly lament to anyone who brings up Souls games to me that I missed the days when From Software made mech games. When they announced Armored Core 6 was coming after a decade of no mech games(when previously they would sometimes put out multiple a year). I was excited to say the least.
• Recommend to others: I don't think I have to. Due to From Software's newly found popularity as a developer(as in, since they stopped making Armored Core games), I think more people are playing this one than any prior. That said, it's still, at it's core, the same game. I like it a lot, but I don't think it's going to sway anyone who doesn't like mecha games, or didn't like an old Armored Core.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is possibly the best Armored Core game, but it's still an Armored Core game, and they were never perfect before. The level design was possibly the best it's been in the series, but there is a certain lack of scale that makes sense in any sense of grounded reality. Everything is clearly to scale to the mechs, which means you never really have that "larger than life" feeling you generally want when piloting a mech. Sure, you can see some small details, like staircases, ladders, and cars(only very large military vehicles mind you), but every ladder leads to a platform no smaller than 4 football fields.