Останні рецензії користувача Shortchimp

7.5/10
Fable I was one of my childhood RPGS that I used to love playing. In fact, I have played through all 3 of the fable games, and I have the fondest memories with the first fable game, as I cherished it the most of the 3, with 2 being second and 3rd one being... well, disappointing. Playing this game again at an older age does show me that yes, this game does still hold up to this day, but of course it lacks aspects that I expect from my modern RPGs. It still doesn't undermine the special aspects of this game however.

Story
The story of this game is pretty simple, good vs evil. Your childhood village gets raided by bandits, killing your father and kidnapping your sister, while the guild also basically kidnaps you and trains you to become a hero. I will say it is a pretty interesting start to a game, but the way characters react and move makes most story telling moments in this game either awkward or comedic at times. As you go from childhood to teenager all the way to adulthood, you begin to become worthy enough to leave the guild and go on an adventure. Past this point it is a pretty simple but charming RPG where you take on quests and learn the world of albion. Half way thru the game you do meet the main antagonist, Jack of Blades, and this does get pretty interesting cause while jack of blades is a very simple evil villain, he is a pretty effective villain for how the game handles its story. Getting sent to prison and tortured for a year, all the way to beating jack once and for all. The TLC content was brand new to me as I never played the expansion when I was a kid, and only played and beat the base fable game. Honestly I can't believe I never did cause the ending to the original fable pre TLC was just kinda abrupt. The TLC part of the story isn't crazy either, but it does give a fitting conclusion of taking down jack of blades once and for all, and either throwing his mask away, or wearing the mask... which honestly even as a evil character makes 0 sense why would I want to be mind controlled by jack for all eternity. The side content is ranges from either worthwhile to being kinda forgettable. There are the more memorable questlines like escorting three traders across a dark forest (one being a werewolf himself), marrying a crazy evil women who def killed her sister just cause she is the hottest girl in the game, and of course, sacrificing innocent bodyguards as a morally good person just to get the best bow in the game. It is all over the place, but most of the interesting side quests just had a ton of charm to them that made them very interesting to play through.

Characters
The characters in this game are a mixed bag. Honestly I loved most of the important character designs, however calling them fleshed out characters would be a huge stretch. Even the characters who stick close to you or are very important to the hero can be explained in less than a paragraph at best, and at worst... 2 sentences, which is pretty funny for a RPG. Your sister, Theresa is the main driving point for the hero, and honestly while it is interesting cause of her design and what they did to her, she doesn't stick long enough for me to care much for her. Whispers is also a childhood companion, who doesn't stick long enough to care much. Maze same thing, guildmaster same thing, honestly I wlil prob remember most of the characters by design instead of by name... except for thunder who had the funniest rivalry against the hero not cause of his character arc, but instead being able to cuck him by stealing his wife and banging her why he complains that you are not man enough for her. Jack of Blades like mentioned before is a very interesting evil villain, but I still prefer his original voice, as they made his new voice in TLC more "evil", but generic. TLC does flesh out the characters more, but it was pretty funny how the oracles what happened to the characters, and while your sister's story was interesting, they just mentioned that yeah, Whispers died in a ship raid by pirates like ok ig.

Gameplay
The gameplay can be split into 4 sections, standard melee, very bland but strong archery, the more fun and diverse magic... or messing around with the pretty hilarious NPCs. The balance between the main three I do think was balanced the best in this game compared to 2 or 3, where melee just becomes worthless esp in 3, where you handicap yourself by playing melee. I really enjoyed the combat style in this game cause while yeah it has the usual block, it does have rolling to avoid damage, which was the only way to dodge some moves in this game. Magic however was so much fun in this game cause of the amount of spells you get that are pretty unique to each other. Playing as a magic user, I enjoyed the divine fury spell which just felt so nice to charge up a rune around you, to stun lock enemies while they get blasted by beams. If there is one downfall to magic, it is the need for a ton of magic potions due to how LONG recharging takes for your magic bar. It isn't a problem in normal mode, but in heroic they really limit the amount of potions you can buy, making me rely on melee while I had no mana left for entire questlines. Archery is very bland imo, just stand back and shoot without much variety, but enemies can't block your shots. The enemies in this game were pretty varied, but had really annoying types like summoner or ice trolls. Apart from combat however, the NPCs in this game are just so much fun to mess around with, alongside the economy of this game. The NPCs tend to react to your alignment, from running away if you are evil, to cheering you on when you are good while the females want to marry you just by the sight of you. Messing around with them was just so much fun, and especially with them roaming around when enemies are nearby, there are just funny encounters where they cheer you on, get a rock thrown at by a troll, get up to cheer you on, another rock thrown and die right there. Even the economy was just really fun, but abusable at times. On heroic it isn't as easily broken, but in normal mode you can get rich very quick due to the supply/demand system, where they pay more if they lack that item, meaning you can buy all their diamonds, then sell them back to them for a profit. In heroic, I found more enjoyment by taking entire towns to the woods, killing them all with one spell, then buying their property so I can rent them and get the daily upkeep payments, just so much charm to this game.

Music
Very memorable, but of course works best in the game instead of outside the game (outside of temple of light, will always cherish that song). The town themes were nice, mainly because the dumbest ♥♥♥♥ will happen with the NPCs, giving me the same feelings I felt with Oblivion town NPCs at times with how jank they are. Other than that, none of the bosses really had unique music, not even jack of blades which is a shame, but will still cherish the OST for this game.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
- While I do think the graphics are objectively better, I still prefer the old look the original graphics had, ESPECIALLY with the faces. The new models just scream 360 era of slapping non matching models onto janky ps2 era animations.
- Heroic mode is pretty needed, cause base game is way too easy, only annoyance being the limitations of mana potions with traders.

Conclusion
I will always hold a special place for the first Fable game, even if replaying it reminds me of the jank and lack of polish this title has. While yes Fable 2 did feel more polished and removed the jank, it cost the more interesting and unique style of the first game that I enjoyed a ton. I do think it is a unique experience, even knowing how much was cut from this game (good ol Peter Molyneux lies). I do think this game is worth a playthrough, but going in with wanting to experience the unique charm of this game, and not expecting a GOTY RPG.

7.5/10

6.5/10
Having played the answer before, I always knew this remake of an already flawed aspect of fes was going to be insanely tough. Do they stick to the original and make the same flaws as the original, or do they completely change everything, making a potentially much better game, but anger the fans for not being faithful and of course, changing too much and undermining the original intent in the story. What they did to this game was to remake the game faithfully, but tweak a few things, gameplay and writing wise that did improve the original, but also do some things worse imo.

Story
The story stays the same... mostly. It still has the same flaws as before, exciting story beats in the beginning..... then barely any till the very end. It still dives into the main themes of the original answer of figuring out the answer to life, and the true reason for how the ending played out in the main game's ending. It makes sense as many of the characters have to cope with the fact that nothing will be the same anymore now that he is gone. If I had to talk about purely the main story beats, yeah they adapted 1:1, however there are things I think they did better and worse. With the positives, cutscenes that relates to in-game were done better, especially with the ending scenes I think they did alot better than the original at times. They also added new character interactions to connect with the characters getting their characteristics and 2nd theurgy back, but honestly they weren't too crazy and at times, didn't really line with the story but were rather small distractions. I loved the premise of the story still, and I do have fond memories of the story beats in this game, but man once the party starts to explore the abyss of time, the story just halts. Sure, there are still the memories scenes, but they are so infrequent and worse of all, not all of them really hit that hard. Still, the story is worth going through even with the major flaws, but with soon to be discussed gameplay, is why I don't blame people for just watching a youtube video on the story.

Characters
In the original, each of the characters had unique responses to that fact, but of course Aigis and Yukari had the strongest moments in the original on dealing with the death, with Yukari especially grieving it with anger. I know that one of the biggest complaints of the original was the fact that Yukari seems out of character, but imo I felt like her response made sense, as she is just resentful with the fact she has so many regrets before his passing, and feeling like if she could do anything different, he would still be alive. In the remake, they rewrote her to be instead, bottle up all of her emotions and isolate herself. Most of the characters (and specifically the players) were depressed that he is gone, so the direction was more of the characters discovering his true fate. However, its been years and we already know and accepted his fate, so this new story direction felt more like sad, and trying so hard to move on but struggling to due to trying to isolate. I would say that with the new direction, I feel like the overall cast quality felt better as now everyone can kinda throw in their takes on his passing, especially with the heartless cry scene when they all come back, I liked how Mitsuru says that she too made a promise, instead of the original where it was purely to comfort Yukari. However, I also do think the peaks of the Yukari and Aigis writings for some moments were handled better in the original, as while yeah she stood out the most in the cast, the moments like her trying to take the key back from aigis felt so strong in the original while in here, its mainly focusing on her finally letting out her emotions she bottled for so long. Some scenes like the cast finally fighting each other were handled better in the original cause of Yukari's reason, but the remake still handled it fine and differently. The new cutscenes as well that were animated were a mixed bag. The first few cutscenes honestly, huge downgrades. It felt like they missed the message and just weren't good direction wise, which was a huge gap I didn't feel in the base game. However, the last cutscenes? Somehow better than the original I just didn't get it.

Gameplay
Now, the worst aspect of the original... and now, the worst aspect of episode aigis. Episode Aigis is quite frankly, hella grindy. Did they fix the gameplay flaws of the answer? No. Not really. I mean yeah, the gameplay is honestly just better, and it was easier to get through this game compared to the original. But thats cause reload's gameplay was less frustrating. Everyone starts back at level 25, which means now you have to grind back with the same old personas, but not at a slower pace. I still felt the exhausting going through the levels yet again, in the same looking floors as before, doing the same loop again and again. P3R's gameplay loop knew when to take a break and cut to social links and hangouts, even then having unique bosses to fight and such. Episode Aigis instead focuses on JUST the tartarus aspect of the base game, which gets super bland after awhile. While yes new music amping up each new block was nice, and I did like the music better, having ZERO social link bonuses means grinding for new personas felt so damn slow, making the grind even greater. It just feels like they stretched out as much to create a followup story to the original without wanting to invest money to make the length justified. Of course reload does add new things, monad doors now have the same bosses, but the rewards are so worth it as they usually drop insanely good gear, which was exciting. The breakables were nice, and the new floor layouts were way more unique compared to the original. It was easier to chug along the game, but it still felt like a chore at times. It is still the same fun persona gameplay, so it isn't terrible, but man the grind is just too much at times. The game's length of around 35-40 hours didn't feel justified in the original answer, and still doesn't really feel justified in episode aigis.

Music
Most of the songs were the same as before, but the new songs were honestly pretty fire. The new battle song Don't, was pretty fire imo. Atlus never misses with their new battle themes, and I never felt like I got tired of this song the same way I never got tired of It's going down now. The remade songs I liked as well, the ending song was still very good, but since most of the original answer songs didn't have lyrics, they didn't feel as jarring in the remake compared to how the base P3R handles the remade songs. The abyss of time dungeon song amping up was still pretty fire, and honestly still loved that loop compared to Tartarus' loop. Overall, still bangs, and I liked the remade songs, even if the Aigis mass destruction I think hits better in the original, however lotus juice still cooks.

Last positives/Nitpicks
- This should had not been forced to be purchased through the expansion pass just so they can upcharge. The dlc is not worth $35, Atlus knew that so they forced you to buy the other DLC to justify that price point. Scummy.
- The Joker Superboss was so much damn RNG, and the grind to setup was so damn annoying thx to the RNG grinding needed since you can't just buy gems anymore like base game. Hardest Persona superboss prob, but only cause of how much BS RNG is required to pass to even stand a chance.

Conclusion
This remake of the worst aspect of P3 was never going to go well and I understand that. Did they do aspects better than the original? Yeah, I do. Did they do aspects worse than the original? Also yeah. I still hold the same feelings I had with the original answer, this game's story is worth going through, but man that gameplay is so grindy I do not blame anybody if they just skipped the game and watched the cutscenes on youtube, cause even as a longtime fan of this series, it was hard for me to play through as well.
6.5/10

3.5/10
Kane & Lynch 2 is a terrible game, there is no denying that. However, I would also be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this game at times. This game is fundamentally broken, with a terrible gameplay, terrible and chaotic story, and so many bugs that you can't think of a single mission that didn't contain a bug. However if you are looking for a coop game that is fun to laugh at, this game might be right up your alley.

Story/Characters
If there is one aspect that I think carries this game, it is the atmosphere. Would I say story? well, its a big of a chaotic journey. The story is about 2 characters and the literal downward spiral of the domino effect, having them go from trying to teach 1 guy a lesson, to having to hijack a passenger plane to run away from the chinese army. It is just a bunch of chaos that never takes a breathing room for neither kane nor lynch. It is also told in this handheld cam style, where there is a cameraman who follows kane & lynch throughout their chaotic journey, running with them, ducking with them and just having the feeling of following 2 people who can never sit down for 3 minutes. It is a pretty interesting style, but at times is doesn't contribute as much apart from being annoying. Kane and Lynch are just downright evil people, and I loved watching their chaotic and hypocritical moments they would have, with Lynch's Schizophrenic breakdowns, and Kane taking advantage of Lynch to achieve his goals. The other characters were of course, very one noted of course as 95% of the time, died the same scene they were introduced as the 2 characters killed them and just moved on due to the lack of time they had. The cutscenes and voice acting at times were decent, but most of the time were bleh, but I liked the direction they were going. If there was some hope with the story even if it isn't the greatest, it is immediately vomited on by the gameplay of this game.

Gameplay
If you want to play this game for the story and the chaos of the 2 characters, honestly its pretty entertaining. If you want to play this game for the gameplay? Refund this game cause it will not be for you. The gameplay is just atrocious, as it is just not only stacked with a terrible gameplay mechanics, but they barely even work at times. I played through the game at extreme difficulty in coop mode. Playing this game through extreme difficulty is honestly a terrible way to play this game, but at the same time the best way to play this game. You will legit die in one hit at times, the enemies have the same exact firepower as you now, which makes the feeling of the characters crawling their way out instead of being powerhouses feel so damn good. However, extreme also highlights the terrible flaws of this game too much. First of all, the AI is horrible where they will just die cause of them blanking out. However, the AI also cheats, their accuracy is just 10x better than yours and will one shot you without you being able to react, or just bug out and shoot you cause they run and gun you. Coop however is an aspect that is just literally broken, however how much fun Coop is, being able to laugh at the game with a friend just makes the experience that much more worth it. In coop, the partner's animation is broken, they will teleport everywhere, the partner will have cutscene audio break, and some events will just break cause of coop. Even with all of these faults, it makes going through this game that much more fun thx to being able to laugh the faults off. Even outside of the difficulty and coop, the gameplay is just bad. Going back to accuracy, most of the guns have terrible accuracy, meaning you will miss, a ton. If you are given the worst possible guns, you will have a better time throwing the guns than trying to actually use them to shoot at the enemies. In extreme difficulty, enemies one shot you but don't really have the accuracy problem. However, bullets for you come out from the middle of the camera, NOT from where your gun is. Meaning you are able to just avoid the cover system if its in standing point, and it is better to aim your gun behind the wall and shoot, as you are able to kill the enemies, but your body is fully covered by the wall. The gameplay is just fundamentally broken, but it can be pretty fun just cause of how chaotic everything is. The handheld cam is pretty nauseating, but makes the gameplay feel pretty unique. I did like how much the sound breaks with the stronger guns, and with HUGE explosions the sound compresses a ton and the video breaks, which is cool. Other than those moments, the gameplay is just terrible.

Music
Was there music? Honestly idk, I don't really rememebr any song from this game. There were generic songs but apart from that, nothing.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
- Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
- Multi-monitor means if you start the game, your other monitors will just black screen until you close the game (yay)
- Getting one tapped in extreme mode was just *chefs kiss.

Conclusion
Its really hard to talk about this game cause while I did enjoy my time with it. I enjoyed it cause of how bad the game is. While yes, I did think the story's chaotic approach was entertaining, and I did like the atmosphere, the rest of the game is just god awful, and just showcases how broken this game is. It is so broken, it made me appreciate Re6, which is something I never thought I would do. Play this game for the story and atmosphere, even if it was a good concept with poor execution. Also play this game with a friend for a good laugh at how bad the gameplay is.
3.5/10

9/10
This isn't my first time playing through persona 3, as I have already beaten FES before. I wanted to get into Persona 3 Reload not only cause I wanted to see all the changes and upgrades they did to the original, but also an excuse to replay P3 again, even if I knew all the major plot points in the game at this point. It is pretty safe to say that P3R still holds the strong aspects of P3, while also improving a TON of aspects that were a bit lacking in the original. However some points were changed a bit for the worse, and at the end of the day, the major flaws of P3 still stay true in P3R, but does a much better job at hiding them.

Story
I have always held true that I believe that P3 had the best story of the 3. P3R stayed true to the original story while also adding a ton of new story elements that weren't there in the original, mainly with additional scenes with some characters, new bonding episodes with male members, and especially noticable, voice acting with every social link scene instead of just beginning and rank 10. To begin with, the story's main flaw still stands, which is the first few months before meeting aigis were very aimless in terms of where the story was going. Playing P3R with already played P3 makes me realize just how much of "who is the new monster?" storyline till aigis very much dragged on. Once you do get past that point, honestly the story truly becomes peak and that is where I still hold the best story crown, cause while P3 takes its sweet time getting to the main story, it really does an amazing job showcasing the amazing story of this game. You start to learn everyone's backstory at this point, their true motivations and their connections to the main story's theme of Memento Mori, or overcoming the fact that everything dies one day. Going through everyone's arc as they feel like they finally understand what they need, just for their world to crumble over a death, then overcoming that and becoming their strongest self was so damn satisfying to watch. The remake does an amazing job at telling the story at this point, and while yeah I do think there is a huge tone change, as the game is very much brighter compared to the original's more darker tone, I think the remake does justice for a ton of scenes, even if there were changes in the cutscenes in VERY specific moments I think the original did better. However, Ken's scene, Junpei's resolution, Akihiro's resolution, ending and many of the hard hitting story moments in the original, hit so much harder thx to the new voice actors, they honestly did a fantastic job.

Characters
This aspect I was the most curious for, as while story couldn't be shifted around much, new voice actors meant new scenes and dialogue that didn't happen in the original, or moments that hit harder just cause of the new overall upgrade of the voice actors. They honestly all sounded so damn good with most of the SEES characters. However the biggest ones I wanted to hear were Aigis and especially ♥♥♥♥♥'s new voice actors, as they were the ones who stood out as the weakest of the original voice actors. The new scenes with the male members were SO damn needed and makes their characters feel so much more fleshed out, especially with Ken and Shinji's bond episodes, the 2 who def needed the bonding episodes. Junpei and Akihiko's bonding episodes were also fantastic, and Koromaru's episodes were sweeter than I would had imagined. The new scenes added in like with Strega were very nice, but imo didn't fix the lack of polish Strega had. However nothing pales in comparison to how little effort they gave to Ikutsuki, as he was insanely bland in the original, and he is still the bad pun, bland character in this game. Apart from that, I still think how strong the characters connect to the main theme was very impactful, but this was also a different time in Persona, when the social links was still very new and was less of creating unbreakable bonds, but rather helping each character overcome their problem. The social links had a ton of people who weren't meant to be rooted for like Tanaka, gourmet king, and some other social links where they lashed out at you. The new voice acting for all social links however did help a ton with portraying what they really felt, as some scenes did go through better now that they can just speak their mind instead of reading a dialogue of gourmet king ditching you rank 9, only coming back cause HE screwed up and got backed into a corner.

Gameplay
If there is one aspect of the original P3 that people point at as the worst aspect of the game, it is the gameplay. P3R changes a TON gameplay wise, to the point that you can name their systems two different games. If I were to list the main HUGE gameplay changes this game had, it would be controllable party members, no Tired mechanic, Theurgy, and a ton of smaller additions that aren't notable changes my themselves, but add up to making the game feel that much different (and better) than the original. First of all, being able to control party members was a huge change, as with having members you can only give vague commands to meant there were a ton of fights you would lose because oh idk, Mitsuru thought Marin Karin on the boss immune to status ailments was a good idea. No tired system as well might had seemed minor, but it honestly changed a TON of the game. No tired system means no midnight activities like studying, or sleeping to regain stamina. It also affected Tartarus exploration meaning possible in 1 day instead of 2-3, so night activities felt way less packed than the original cause of it, causing a ton of empty times doing nothing. The new Theurgy system also meant all party members were viable anytime, as they now have a really strong burst that ignored resistance, a bit TOO much damage at times, making the game a bit easier than before. Honestly I do think overall the gameplay is just a huge improvement over the unfair at times mechanics of the original, but the original also had a uniqueness to the gameplay. What isn't unique however is Tartarus, as while yeah Reload does a TON to fix up tartarus with more unique floor layouts unique to each block, better pacing and less need to grind due to more huge EXP opportunities. Overall, the gameplay is just much better than the original.

Music
If I were to just talk about P3R's OST, its peak. The new songs are probably the best songs out of all the Persona games. It's going down now, Color your Night, Full Moon Full Night, pretty much all the NEW songs were just insanely peak. The songs that were remade were mostly done insanely better, however there were songs that just quite doesn't hit as hard as the original, especially ones with lyrics. Some songs like Mass Destruction or When the Moon's Reaching out Stars, while they were still fantastic songs, I do think the original version was done better. Overall and especially with the new songs, P3R ost is till Peak.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
- The new character balancing made the cast way better to choose who to bring instead of just obvious top tiers and bottom tier members.
- Elizabeth fight was prob the hardest of the persona secret bosses, but only cause they made it into a puzzle more than testing your skills.
- Dying man, Maiko and old couple still the best social links

Conclusion
Persona 3 Reload is still a beautiful remake of a game that is able to handle the story of the original P3 and remake it into something special. While it doesn't fix the core flaws of the game, it does fix up a huge portion of the issues that I had with the original while giving it a really pretty makeup with the graphics. I think Persona 3 Reload is the definitive way of playing Persona 3, while not outright replacing the original game, as it does change the tone of the game a ton. Still, I highly recommend this game, especially if you are a newcomer, and even if you have already played Persona 3 FES or portable.
9/10

8/10
Mouthwashing was honestly a pretty good game. It is really hard to talk about this game without talking about spoilers so past this point I will mainly talk about spoilers.

Story/Characters
Honestly the main reason to play this game, as it focuses on a story of a crew of five who have been stranded on a ship due to a crash, with barely any supplies except the company mouthwash. The story bounces between both Jimmy and Curly, whose perspective can be a bit confusing to understand (prob on purpose). The story is also told in a fragmented way, so we start in the crash, jump to months after, then before, then after, then during. Even with that back and forth storytelling, the game does have a pretty good way of intertwining everything together so each flashback callbacks to the current time. The characters are also cleverly written so they slowly start to go mad over the scenario, especially towards one member, Jimmy who we come to realize is... pretty damn screwed up. Honestly I did like how they made you play Jimmy even after finding out all the terrible acts he has done to everyone, especially Anya. The crew's slow and eventual crashout as they finally give up on anything getting better, and slowly turning on each other was magical, and the best part of the game. Finding out that Jimmy was the one to crash the ship as a desperate attempt to kill everyone on board just to escape reality was also really good. If there were some complaints I had with the story, I do think the characters could had been a bit better written, of course 2 hour long game so they could only do so much. Daisuke mainly felt more like a character to drive Swansea's character for example, and some points were a bit hammered too much. Also I do think past Swansea's death, the game drags a bit and turns more into a shock value instead of working at its strength of being a well written psychological horror. I've seen a ton of people say the whole theme of the game is capitalism bad, but honestly I think it focuses more on regrets, and mental distress that capitalism can cause, and the lengths people will go just to survive another day after being in the bottom for so long. I loved the story of this game, but do wish the game ended a bit earlier, prob trim out the whole birth of a baby segments cause they went on for a bit too long imo.

Gameplay
With the game's focus on story, gameplay is an aspect I obviously don't expect much of. Yes, the game is mainly walking from point A to point B, and the gameplay outside of walking is pretty fine. Using scanners to scan invisible codes to open doors, making recipes, its all pretty simple. The horror segments were cool, but lost their horror after the first encounter as a ton of them were pretty simple and easy to avoid. There is a nice variety, but nothing to stick of course. I won't dock much off of the game for this cause honestly its the experience that is the focus of this game instead of having an insanely fun gameplay mechanic, which is fine. Psychological horror was the main gameplay element, but it wasn't terrifying to play as it doesn't do a particularly great job at holding that fear in like other Psychological horror games, but still pretty good overall.

Music
I liked it a ton. Most of the songs in this game fit the story moments pretty well and were not distracting. While none did stand out to me, as I remember the story moments included with the songs more than the songs themselves, the composer did a great job with this game.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
- Wish the end was trimmed a bit more
- ♥♥♥♥ Jimmy
- Great cast of characters
- The guresome scenes were pretty impactful, but some of them felt a bit too goofy to be taken serious (like the feed curly puzzle)

Conclusion
Honestly great story from beginning to near end. I highly recommend playing the game ESPECIALLY with no knowledge prior to playing the game. While I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece of a game, I still think its one of the better psychological horror games to play, and a great story that will hook you right away.
8/10

9.5/10
Metaphor Refantazio is an amazing game, and is a combination of all my favorite aspects of atlus games together, from the social links of Persona to the Press turn of SMT. Metaphor's strong combat with the press turn, and writing it into a brand new Atlus IP in a fantasy setting and STILL pulling it off was just a treat to experience. Not only that, but having a strong cast as your allies, a VERY strong main villain, and strong story themes made me wanting more from this game, to the point that the feeling of my 100 hour long experience with this game was a bit too short (even if at times, it def didn't feel that way).

Story
The story def took a bit to get into, as for around 5 hours, the story focuses on purely world buliding. I get it, new IP, new fantasy setting requires introductions to it all, but it does take a bit before the story starts rolling. Once the races, the world, the city, your goal of it all and your motivation to become king gets displayed is when the game REALLY starts to kick off. Even then it took me a bit to truly fall in love till the 3rd companion's Introduction (Heismay), that was when I become hooked into this game. The story is mainly your characters attempting to save the prince after a terrible curse occurred, and how you will do anything to become king just to stop whoever casted the spell. The story also likes to tackle themes such as Racism, Religious and Government Corruption, and Overcoming Anxiety. I loved the way this game tackles them all, and while yeah, atlus writing isn't the most complex layers, but more straightforward, I just enjoyed the writing a ton, and the big story beats def hit for me. Watching characters outright tell you they are going to upcharge you due to your race, allies being outcasts from outsiders and even their own tribes. While the story is full on chugging, of course the calender system does cause some noticeable gaps in story content, but it was never really a problem till around the 90-95% portion of the game, which honestly made sense as it was basically a catchup month to allow you to finish all the bonds with time to spare, very nice of them but does make those last free days to be very noticeable. Luckily past that the game ends very beautifully.

Character
If there is one thing atlus knows how to do really well, its great character development, and Metaphor does not disappoint. The cast of characters were all just a joy to bond with. The ally companions, or the main group worked so well together, and while I wouldn't say it reaches the true friendship bonds like P4G did, they did feel like friends who would stick together till the end, even if their duties drift them away. All the companions had different motivations that caused them to join the main group, from feeling like they failed you, to watching their own town burn by humans, to watching their own best friend die, all of their reasons were such a joy to experience and I wish I could had stayed with them just a bit longer. If I had to pick my favorites, it would have to be Heismay and Basilio. Heismay's story arc and backstory was so damn good, and Basilio's redemption scene was just chefs kiss. Neuras, who is also part of the main group was such a joy to have. The favorites of the side bonds were Maria, Alonzo (so damn good), Brigitta and Catherina. More's character as well was just so damn peak, and the slow reveal of who he truly is was so damn good. If I had to nitpick, Rella's character arc was def a tad bit rushed imo. I think However as good as the allies were, the main villain, Louis, hands down one of the best Atlus villains. Louis' motivations, backstory, and his arc throughout was so damn good. His parallels to your main character to the point where you both read the same exact book, but took two different paths was just excellent. I just wished there was a scene where louis and the main character were trapped in a room alone so they can argue over beliefs and remember of days past, but of course a scenario like that wouldn't be possible like how P4G handles it with their villain so I understand. Apart from that, yeah characters were amazing, and Louis kicked ass.

Gameplay
Two words, Press. Turn. While yeah I do like the baton pass system of Persona, there is just something about Press Turn that makes it my favorite of Atlus' combat systems. Way more depth, and higher risk/reward for making good plays, while being equally punished for making bad mistakes. Alongside the turn based system, the introduction of a souls-lite overworld combat system, where you attack with many weapons and dodge attacks to get advantages is something I do hope stays. It isn't PERFECT, as it is pretty simple at the end of the day, but It is vastly more interesting than just jumping into a fight out of nowhere, and being able to one shot fights that you out-level just makes the flow of dungeon crawling that much better. Apart from the combat, the other systems like calender did feel a ton like Persona, but was not as focused as Persona, meaning time management isn't as cruel or unforgiving as Persona is, so it was very easy to manage time and get all the bonds done with a ton of time to spare without a guide. The bounty dungeons and more generic dungeons that atlus games usually have were pretty good all things considered. I didn't get the fatigued feeling like I did with base P5 mementos or P3 Tartarus, especially with the variety of gameplay elements, music and a good enough mix of rooms where it didn't get annoying. The main dungeons were also pretty good, but were obviously not the main focus of this game. They weren't like P5 where the dungeons represented the owner, but more felt like new areas to explore with new mechanics to experience. The story arcs around them however did feel more like one giant arc, which may explain that feeling compared to the other persona games where the main dungeons had segment arcs, where the dungeons didn't contribute much to the main arc, just their own arc if that makes sense, so I do think the dungeons flowed better between each other. Apart from that, I loved Metaphor's Gameplay.

Music
Excellent, what did you expect? Its Atlus. The OST this time around def flowed better in gameplay and story beats, similar to how SMT handles their OST instead of Persona ,where their OST can be listened outside the game as well. Metaphor's OST was still amazing with highlights like the disadvantage combat theme, Mid Boss Theme, Tradia Desert theme, Louis' Boss Themes, all the town themes (especially Virga Island).

Last Positives/Nitpicks
- Barely any bugs happened in my playthrough, only one I can think of was I fell through the map on the stairs with the gliding sword, which I think only happened cause my game just stuttered and dropped to 2 frames randomly.
- I know Atlus is most likely gonna make an enhanced version of this game, but at least this game hints at new adventures so maybe.
- I loved how much this game had a ton of plots that were left to open interpretation, the origins of some races like Nidia's true forms, the igniter trials performed on Paripus and Neuras Involvement with the trials and more were so good especially coming from Atlus.
- Towards the end some builds did get ridiculous, but honestly earned since you have to build towards them first instead of just being given to you like a DLC persona (Evade builds removing all turns was insane for press turn tho).

Conclusion
Metaphor takes all of Atlus' best aspects and turns it into a beautiful fantasy game. While I do feel like an enhanced version simliar to vengeance or royal will happen to Metaphor, honestly I wouldn't mind that as I do feel like this game opens a wide door for new adventures (even if I don't like the practice). I do hope Atlus moves towards this direction and not like how they did with SMT V or Soul Hackers 2, cause they really did just make another banger yet again.
9.5/10

7.5/10
This one was surprising. I initially thought I would had liked lighting returns the LEAST of the 3 in the xiii trilogy, but after finishing the game, doing a ton of the side quests, even doing the superboss for this game, I truly think that lightning returns is the best of the 3 games... even though like its other 2, is flawed to their core.

Story
This one is what people always point at, and quite honestly I am in the middle of both opinions. Is the story amazing? no. Is it the best of the three? better than xiii-2, but structure wise prob the weakest of the three. What I liked about xiii's story was honestly the writing, even though it felt like them attempting to do the nier automata's side quest approach of doom and gloom, but with a worse writing style that doesn't hit nearly as hard as that game. For the main story, it feels like a super streched out 10 hour story forced into a 30-40 hours long game. The main concept of the story is how little time Lightning has to reverse the destruction of the world by a god that created it all. It has a TON of themes surrounding how death affects the current living souls, religion and religious power abuse, and the effect of living for 500 damn years without aging, losing your loved ones and how they affect that person. Honestly I feel like this was such a strong base for a story, but it was obviously not given the time it was needed to polish the story, which is why I feel like they decided to add the time mechanic, and have a ton of the story content being side quests. The side quests were the more interesting aspects, and was actually worthwhile compared to the previous ff games just for the story, even if they weren't written as well as other games I have played. The main story has a ton of issues I didn't like, like how each character had 1 main story chapter dedicated to them, and once they were finished, they legit don't show up at ALL till the very end to help lightning. Apart from that I feel like I did enjoy this story way more than xiii-2 purely for the writing, even if the structure was pretty wack.

Characters
This one is a bit mixed for me. The one thing I like is the even though they tried to make lightning "stripped of emotion", I honestly liked her way more than in XIII. I know this game is practically JUST her on focusing on their character development, while xiii had to balance multiple party cast members. Even tho... she was kind of a ♥♥♥♥♥ in XIII and yes she does develop, but I found her in lightning returns to be way more interesting of a character who struggles with the fact that she can't even feel sad about her missing sister anymore. I still don't think she is a top tier written character, which is sad considering she had THREE WHOLE GAMES to develop, and i've cared more for those with just 1 game, but it is what it is. What I believe is weaker this game around is the other party members. I know they aren't shown much screen time but man they are just casted aside so much in this game, even then aren't written that well. Hope was stripped of his emotions as well, returned to his younger xiii form (why?), and even though you hear his voice for 3/4 of the game, was soooooo damn bland compared to his xiii counterpart. The other cast members were also not that interesting. Noel was weak asf in this story and feels a bit rushed for his character, even if I understood his motives. Snow was the best of the returning casts for having the most interesting storyline, and honestly I liked him the most. Caius was meh in xiii-2, and was meh in this game as well. They try to flesh out his motives in a good light in this game but it wasn't that strong imo. Fang and Vanille were pretty interesting for their dynamic, and I liked their development in this game. Sazh, poor dude, had pretty good scenes for the what, 10 minutes of cutscene he has in this game. They cut his involvement in xiii-2 and they did it again in this game, like cmon I like his character premise so much but he barely does anything in this game AGAIN. The side quest characters were short, but had some good highlights, they were probably the better aspects of this game, but did feel like an extra budget and time would had made them REALLY good (which this game didn't have, obviously).

Gameplay
For the huge shift towards action, quite honestly I liked the system a ton. It is a sudden change from the paradigm system from xiii and xiii-2, but honestly I liked it better overall. I liked the paradigm system, but it did have some issues that grinded my gear like how unresponsive some actions felt like turning around, being stunlocked (even though this happens still in this game), and how samey the encounters can be esp in xiii-2. It isn't perfect, I wasn't the biggest fan of some enemy designs, some of them were designed purely to waste your time and such, and the shop system being completely worthless (first playthrough), and the GOOD items being so damn expensive you will NEVER afford them till you have already finished the game was just a tease. The good aspects tho, perfect guarding was such a good mechanic, and adds a ton of enjoyment for making fights purely off of skill instead of just higher number scaling. Talking about scaling, lightning's power scales from doing side quests instead of grinding, which I liked a ton. The three character archetype shifting was so damn good, and can get pretty busted with stuff like 100% damage reduction styles and such. Apart from combat, the time mechanic was such a cool idea at first, till you realize there is so much damn time that honestly makes the time mechanic practically worthless apart from working around quest schedules and one dungeon. I did all the main questlines, did like 93% of the side quests, and still had 3 days to go that I honestly just rested through. I would vastly prefer the time lightning had to be BARELY enough to do everything and talk about how you can't do everything you want to do, but nope, its just there to be scared of at first, then be forgotten till you remember its there so you can sleep till the final day. Lastly the pacing of the game from main story to side quest was a bit jarring, and just feels like they had so much they wanted to do, but with the limited budget with shows a ton with the cutscenes being mainly real time rendered, with generic animations and such that was nowhere near the quality of xiii and even xiii-2, which kinda sucks.

Music
Good, but wasn't as good as xiii-2's ost. There were still some pretty good songs I liked like the Ark theme, Wildland theme, Luxerion theme and the final boss theme I liked, but nowhere near as good as the top tier final boss themes from other FF games. Still, I liked the OST for this game, but for how amazing xiii-2's ost was, I was a bit unfair to compare to.

Final Positives/Nitpicks
- PC Port was ALMOST perfect compared to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ xiii-2 port, with the only MAJOR complaint apart from wack method to change graphic settings, was the lack of kb+m support. (previous 2 had kb+m, why couldn't this game have proper support?)
- Some of the side quests (and Sazh's quest) were wayyyy too annoying to do, some of them wanted you to travel so damn far, wait apart separate days, and weren't worth it story and reward wise.

Conclusion
Lightning returns was honestly a pretty good game comparing to the other 2 games. While I did complain a ton in this review, I still honestly think this was the best of the three. While the story wasn't as strong structure wise, I enjoyed the writing the most, the combat the most and believe if it were given the proper budget and time, would had been up there as one of the better FF games easily. Instead we are left with a bit of a mess, with a time mechanic that gives too much time to matter, and the padding with how little story they had to tell prevents it from being a great FF game... but compared to the other flawed xiii games, still stands out as the great XIII game.
7.5/10

6.5/10
Final Fantasy XIII-2 was my most anticipated game to play throughout the whole 13 trilogy. I quite honestly expected to be blown away by this game after the poor experience I had with 13. However while 13-2 fixes a ton of issues that I had with 13, especially with gameplay, it also leaves a ton to be desired on other aspects like story.

Story
13-2 tries to achieve the impossible of taking the already complicated idea of time travel, and asks the impossible question of what if the future affected the past by having that future timeline only happen that you changed by forcing new events in the past to occur. Was it done well? not really. Quite honestly if I had to point at any weak point of this game, its easily the story. While 13's story was flawed, it atleast tried to tell interesting themes with religion and power. 13-2's story is more of a time travel story with the only prominent theme being believing in the future, pushing forward knowing the bad fate and such. Quite honestly they didn't really stick to me as much as 13 did. One common complaint I always hear about 13-2's story is that it ruined 13's ending, and quite honestly yeah going full time travel did kinda sour it, but I wasn't nearly as mad as I imagined others were especially now that the 3rd game is already out. The game obviously had a smaller budget, so many cutscenes weren't as impressive as 13, and even going by discussion, it was obvious that this game's story was mainly character centric this time around, with the story's time travel just being a driving force that works only if you ask literally 0 questions about it. A VERY interesting thing this game does is with its ending, which I won't go into much detail for spoilers reason, but while a ton of people hated it, I liked it quite honestly.

Characters
One interesting thing about this game is that the main character from 13, lightning, is turned into a side character... and I was actually pretty happy about it. Lightning was never my favorite main character, and I enjoyed Serah way more character wise due to her more charming personality and willingness to actually give a ♥♥♥♥ about what is happening around her compared to Lightning's "conflicted" personality that is overall pretty weak imo. Noel is also the 2nd main character and while I did enjoy him a ton, I don't think both of them would enter my top 10 best FF characters list anytime soon... maybe serah. Noel's journey was very interesting, but quite honestly not the craziest. I think the one thing this game lacks is strong writing, so its hard to care about the characters stories, or the story in general. Even with that, I still cared for the two and I think they were a much stronger character story wise compared to 13's cast... who also show up again in this game albeit with major plot convenience and whenever the game felt like they should pop in and out. The worst part about having a convoluted time travel is that a ton of events in this game just felt so damn plot convenient, like oh wow thank goodness snow was in this timeline at this point and never shows up, or oh wow thank god Sazh shows up for literally 3 minutes at the perfect moment to contribute anything to the plot... Man I feel like if they just did the easier past affects future, or atleast explain the time travel WAY better than they did, it would had worked out much better.

Gameplay
Now this is where 13-2 gets the most praise over 13. SO many aspects of 13-2 is just 13's gameplay but actually way improved. The combat is faster, paradox shifting isn't a snails pace, you aren't introduced to mechanics every 20 hours cause the game actually respects that you will understand the mechanics quick. A ton of small things were just made wayyy better in 13-2, and the MAJOR mechanic difference is the monster mechanic, where instead of a third party member, you have a monster that you are able to capture, level up, infuse, and utilize in your party with up to 3 different monsters. Its honestly pretty cool, however does have some shortcomings. First of all the game's difficulty is easy for like 90% of the game, so you don't have to care about monster leveling apart from like 3 MAJOR difficulty spikes. Even then, smaller mechanics are only required for when you grind for the coliseum (which I didn't do cause I got burnt out at the end just thinking about having to grind for 30 hours for something I know I can do easily). Another thing I think was downgraded was the crystarium levelling up. Instead of the more interesting tower design of where you have to choose the branch and decide what to level up for each role, you have one large branch that you choose your role to level each orb. What this creates is you spamming the level up for your main role of that character, making the impact of getting those big skills feel not as strong as 13's system. Honestly having firaga 5 hours in the game was just kinda lame (even if 13-2's system has you spamming fire for single target anyways). Not only that, you forget the skills you get anyways cause of how fast you level specific roles, and of course serah and Noel have "unique" trees for each role, so some spells that serah can get, Noel can't... or nobody getting haste at all since ig it was pretty busted in 13. Another aspect is that the game does have some gameplay segments that focus on puzzles, and quite honestly I enjoyed them apart from one clock puzzle that would had been so much better if they explained it better than they did. Overall I think the best part of 13-2 is the combat, but it isn't the DIRECT upgrade I was led to believe.

Music
Now if I were to talk about direct upgrades... its the music. Oh my GOD the music in this game bangs. It is so damn unique compared to even the rest of the series with the variety and amount of songs that were just bangers. Historia Crux theme, New Bodhum, Worlds collide, eternal struggle, I can go on for nearly 60% of the ost as bangers it is insane.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
-Ok, the pc port of this game is easily top 10 worst ports I have experienced. Required fix mod or else you will have so many damn problems with crashing. Audio sounds like ♥♥♥♥ and requires software to fix. Cutscene low resolution again. Even then terrible controls, performance sucks, I can go on with the amount of problems this port has. Its the worst of the trilogy easily.
- Didn't do endgame content, but did do DLC, and Lightning was just a repeating 2 phase boss which I liked honestly, and Sazh was just poker lmao.
- I probably liked 13-2 more than 13 due to playable gameplay this time, but story is worse.

Conclusion
13-2, even though was better than 13 for me, was probably the one I felt had the biggest wasted potential. They made so many well done changes to the gameplay that it sucks to have a few stick out that is worse compared to 13. The writing team of this game as well needs to realize why nobody else has done a future affects past story before... cause its buns. I feel like this game would had been LEAGUES better than 13 if it weren't for the fact that the story, while serviceable and has good characters and even villain, is held back by the convoluted story that tries to be more complex then it really is.
6.5/10

5/10
Resident Evil 6 is probably the most confused game I have ever experienced. While Resident Evil is known best when it does survival horror, RE6 is known as the survival horror... action, blockbuster, military shooter, etc, etc, this game can't really be described better than just a huge mess that attempts to please everyone, but instead pleases nobody.

Story
While most games would go the route of telling one, strong story, RE6 takes the brave route of telling 4, separate (but same storyline), weaker storylines. The main storylines are from Chris, Leon, Jake, and last but probably worst, Ada. Quite honestly they vary greatly in quality, as Chris probably has the least amount of story, but a simple goal. Jake's storyline focuses on the Nemesis like enemy and the relation between Jake and Sherry, almost like a love story. Leon's Campaign probably has the most attempts to do storytelling, but falls flat with many moments of just forced walking sections. They vary a ton in tone, but at the same time share the same (big explosions go boom). Probably the most disappointing was Leon's campaign, as it was obvious that they wanted to focus on horror, but then realized that they might bore the player, so reminds us that we are playing RE6 and throws an explosion I swear, more times than Chris' Campaign. Jake was the surprisingly stronger campaign, which isn't saying much, but thanks to its love story. Chris' was also a strong potential, but had less times to flesh out the story and instead focus on the action. Ada's campaign... sucked, and the story was just so one note that it got really stale real quick. The worst aspect of this story however was how they tried to connect everyone's story together, which on paper sounds really sick, but ends up with many segments of corny one-liners, standing still watching someone else have fun, or terrible, terrible writing moments that just makes me face palm more than take seriously.

Characters
While Resident Evil never had SUPER fleshed out characters, they always had more interesting characters. RE6 decides that the best way to flesh out a character is to force them to have terrible one liners, especially leon and jake oh my GOD man. They still do hold interest, as like said before, their relations between one another were interesting, and whlie I still complained about the storyline interconnecting was its biggest fault, it was still kinda cool to see them bump into each other and how they contributed... even if it lead to some fights just having you watch them have fun. Jake and Sherry's love story was the most interesting storyline, with Leon and Helena's was the 2nd most interesting. Chris' and his partner was probably the least interesting, and Ada... tried. I do think Jake trying to act the most badass in front of everyone was a bit corny, but I did like his development at the end... but man it sucks how much Leon's campaign storywise and gameplay wise was disappointing, even if they made it to appeal to horror fans... just to make it more action than the rest of the campaigns.

Gameplay
RE6's magnum opus... is super conflicted. Quite honestly the combat and core gameplay they made was pretty good, and was easily the most engaging of the RE games... if only they made the gameplay around a good game. RE6's gameplay is what happens when you have a good system, and do all the wrong things to make that system shine. They have a RE core gameplay with mechanics that focus around dodges, dive rolls, leaping around, and a melee system that encourages stuns into a almost wrestling game? Now instead of having that shine, they instead force you to fight goons with guns, annoying big monsters, and barely give you enough ammo to even flop around and experiment with the system they made. Or better yet, segments of just walking around, watching your 500th explosion, quick time event to just climb a rope? I feel like if they took this exact same combat system and made it around a better game, it would be a different tune. They instead shoved it into a game that didn't know what it wanted to be, action? Horror? RE3 fan? stealth? ♥♥♥♥ it lets have EVERYTHING. The one thing that does save this game is how much fun it is for COOP, which is where this game shines the brightest. I can't fatham playing this game by yourself and having the best time of your life. Compared to RE5's more streamlined, but still fun coop, RE6's coop tends to throw everything at the wall and hope you both enjoy it. While some segments are pretty fun, overall they get stale REAL fast, and especially Ada's campaign which had the most obviously tacked on coop to the point where the partner doesn't even seem to exist, yeah its a mixed bag.

Music
Generic, Generic, Generic. They really tried to replicate the "hollywood feel" a bit too much, and most songs in this ost was just really forgettable.

Last Positives/ Nitpicks
- a ♥♥♥♥ ton of skill points, which were worthless as we played no mercy.
- not the best pc port, but not the worst.
- The Inventory system sucks balls, and the last of coop partner trading and upgrading does hurt a ton on working together and such.

Conclusion
Even though I dog on this game, I still do think its worth a try... on coop only. Solo you might as well play any of the other RE games, as not only will you have a more enjoyable experience, but actually play a game that knows what tf it wants to be. I am glad this was when capcom realized to turn a complete 180 with the direction they were going and finally steer towards Survival Horror again, as I truly believe if they kept going this route, we would be singing a different tune about the RE franchise compared to how we talk about it today.

5/10

8/10 (as of 7.0)
Dawntrail is a new beginning for ff14, as with the end of endwalker comes a new dawn. Just as ARR had hiccups for having the job of starting a new long story, Dawntrail as well shows the same hiccups along the journey, and while done in a much better way than ARR, falls short of the storytelling that was previously done in shadowbringers or endwalker.

Story
This is probably the aspect that will easily be criticized the most, even for someone like me who still enjoyed the story a ton. Dawntrail's story can be split into 2 parts, and without getting too deep into spoilers, will have your enjoyment of each side, especially the first half, solely on how much you enjoy a certain character, or to be exact, Wuk Lamat. Luckily I did enjoy her presense, but I still felt like the 1st half does having really poor pacing issues and weaker writing in general. I know people didn't like how we are not the main character of this expansion, but from what we have had to deal with for the past expansion, it was a nice change of pace. It still can't be avoided however of how much I wish that 1st half had better writing, cause it took me awhile to start getting into the expansion till like maybe lvl 92 msq. The 2nd half does get better, with a huge shift in tone, but still suffers from the same pacing issues as the 1st half, and writing that not only lacks in certain aspects, but urgency as well. There are a ton of moments that the story wants you to start panicking, only for you to stroll along like you have all the time in the world so you can "better understand the people". Of course some of the best moments in this expansion WAS understanding others more, but it still affected the pacing way more than how ff14 pacing usually is. Overall I still feel like Dawntrail was a good overall story, but ranking wise is nowhere near shadowbringers or endwalker, and is probably around the same level of either heavensward or stormblood for me, specifically the x.0 storylines. Still enjoyed it more than ARR and believe it to be a very good story still, but knowing that its the world building expansion, would had liked a bit more better writing now that we have experienced EW and SHB.

Characters
Some strong ones, but overall wasn't as strong as previous expansions. The best highlight characters were Krile, Wuk Lamat (her expansion), Erenville, and the other supporting characters such as Koana and The three Ja Ja, but mainly the father and Bakool Ja Ja. Many of the Scions apart from Krile were a bit one note this expansion. We got to experience mainly Alphinaud and Alisaie as they tagged along with us the most, with the other Scions trickling down later on, but they and the rest of the scions (apart from krile again), didn't really experience a character arc this time around. While they do share screen time, Their writing in general felt more of a side treatment compared to previous expansions. They were still prominent, but weren't nearly as strong as before. Even with those complaints, they were still very good, as I really did enjoy Wuk Lamat's character growth throughout the expansion as she realizes her potential as the leader. Krile FINALLY getting the arc she deserves was a treat as well, and Erenville being the main tag along was a ton of joy to experience. Alphinaud and Alisaie still have strong moments throughout the story, albeit not the focus of this expansion. Koana's 1st half story arc was a ton of fun alongside the other contestants, especially Bakool Ja Ja. While the big main villain of this arc wasn't as strong as before, I still understood their reasoning even if I wished they were fleshed out a bit more. I still got teary over some scenes with the characters, even with ones I really didn't expect to cry over, and while the pacing was not that good this time around, still had those highlights that I love from 14's story.

Gameplay
Won't go over the base gameplay, just the new additions, also haven't done the new raid series or anything apart from msq yet. I loved the dungeons and trials this expansion, ESPECIALLY the dungeons as they felt not only challenging for a base msq dungeon, but had great songs and bosses to go alongside. The trials were also a ton of fun not only storywise, but especially mechanically. I am glad they are starting to make the msq encounters more challenging and engaging compared to previous expansions, and I hope they continue along this path. The new (or more enhanced) stealth mechanic this time around was good, of course was just the same as endwalker, but with visual indicators this time. For the new job additions, I played thru with summoner, which quite honestly their new additions this expansion were fine, as they didn't add much apart from solar bahamut, which does feel unique with the AOE heal, but not new enough to change how I do my rotations at all. Thew new jobs however are SO MUCH fun, I have been loving Pictomancer so far, but plan to level up Viper as I enjoy just how fast their rotation is overall. If there is one thing this expansion did the best, it was in the gameplay department.

Music
A much different approach to the usual songs we hear from Soken, and my god did he nail the OST for this expansion cause it is GOOOODDD. Many of the zone themes, especially towards the end were so damn good, and I just loved all the new songs that were introduced this expansion. While the ONLY complaint I have is the lack of new songs for scenes like the sad moments, or happy moments (or just a new song whenever the characters just talk about something), but still overall was fantastic as always.

Last Positives/Nitpicks
-Planning to switch from SMN, as im starting to get a bit annoyed how dead simple their rotation is.
- Still loved Wuk Lamat, even with all the complaints
- The difference between 1st and 2nd half were jarring, but were tied together much better than how stormblood handled it.

Conclusion
Overall was a very good expansion for a x.0, especially with how it has to start the world building and a brand new arc. However it still has its faults that prevent it from being as good as it could be. I understand why others feel very mixed about this expansion, as while other departments were improved a ton, the story obviously wasn't as strong as previous expansions. I know that the previous writer has now taken a more back role, so new blood is writing the msq, but I do hope they figure out their tempo and write the patches with much more care than the base msq. Still very good for msq, but would had liked the same writing quality as we had before.

8/10