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9.5/10
(this was before I played any of the DLC, this review is focused solely on the base game)
Dark Souls III has been basically a 5 year journey for me, as I bought the game back in 2017, stopped playing it, and kept doing this short burst cycle until I beat elden ring, when I finally hard focused on dark souls III... and man am I glad I finished this game. Dark Souls III has one of the best world building I have ever experience in a RPG, and while I haven't beaten Dark Souls I yet, the lore behind Dark Souls III interested me a ♥♥♥♥ ton, even if it was told in a non-linear fashion like any souls game does. Main complaints could come from just missing the luxuries elden ring had, like stake of marika, being able to level up and do more stuff without having to go back to the roundtable/firelink shrine, and some other annoyances I had (looking at you corpse run).

Gameplay
The Souls-like gameplay lives on in Dark Souls III, and while the increase in speed and the introduction of weapon arts may had put some people off, I still very much LOVED ds3 combat and gameplay. If I did have to complain, I HATED how kick was a W + left click input, which would screw me over a ton as getting a kick was basically a waste of a move and stamina, and it got me killed waaaayyy more then it should... but maybe that is what I get for playing on kb+m. The bosses in this game were amazing, with the final boss, nameless king, and abyss watchers being my highlights. However I felt like some of the bosses were a bit too easy overall, as I did seem to first try way more bosses then I expected, or atleast beat them under a hour which did not happen most of the time in elden ring. Corpse runs are back basically, and while ds3 corpse runs are not THAT bad, having to deal with them again (especially ones that include elevators) was a bit of an annoyance. Other then that, I loved dark souls III gameplay.

Story/Character
Dark Souls III lore back at it again. It is a bit hard to judge this one, as the amount of times I went back and forth for this game kinda ruined me remembering a ton of detail, and I also did not do that many side quests in the game, as I felt like they were much more confusing on what to do compared to elden ring imo. However the lore behind this game and the characters still intrigued me, especially the fire keeper and the lords of cinder. While it wasn't as easy to follow or not as good as elden ring lore and characters, Dark Souls III story was still a treat to experience, especially about the last flame and the morally correct choice and the consequences it brings, alongside the benefits.

Boss Designs
Dark Souls III had a ton of bosses that I LOVED, and some that I did not enjoy as much. I believe the bosses that had duo mechanics, like Pontiff were just flat out better done in this game compared to elden ring (sry if it seems like all I do is compare to elden ring it was the only one I have beaten as of writing this review). I also loved the fights with human-shaped bosses, or ones that were around my size. While I wasn't wow'd visually with the big bosses as much as the other game, there were still a ton of BEAUTIFUL moments with the bosses, like abyss watcher phase 2 transition, Nameless King, and a ton more. I didn't really have any BAD bosses it felt like, but Ancient Wyvern was a bit dull (you literally just run around then one shot him by jumping on his head lmao), and I did not like Deacons of the deep. Overall the bosses in this game were still excellent.

Music
Dark Souls music back at it again. Vordt of the Boreal Valley, Phase 2 of the Soul of Cinder, SOOO many songs in this game just hit so damn hard especially during the heat of the boss fight. I don't think I had any time where the music was just awful for me, and my god the atmosphere music were just excellent. I especially loved the firelink shrine theme 2 song just for how amazing it was to hear sad music in a souls game.

Difficulty
While not as hard as other titles in the series, Dark Souls III still put up a really fun and engaging challenge for me. I did feel like some bosses I would just beat them 2-3 tries easily, which was kinda jarring for me, but it wasn't so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard that it wasn't fun, or too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ easy that it was numbingly boring. While it did hover over the easier sides, it wasn't off putting for me personally. The more challenging bosses were SUPER fun in terms of challenge, and personally I didn't feel cheated for any of the bosses, even the super hard ones like nameless king. It all felt fair which was nice.

Nitpicks/Issues
I do wish Dark Souls III was a tad bit harder imo, end game I kinda felt like I was just a powerhouse, and my weapon wasn't even fully upgraded yet. I did run strength build, but still. Camera controls were a bane of pain for me, and especially phase 1 of the nameless king with the dragon my god the camera controls irritated me. I know to "lol just don't lock on", but overall I did feel like I had to fight the camera way more in this game. Durability system is worthless why is it in the game, I was SUPER easy to get lost in this game and have 0 clue where to go, many times I did have to use a guide on where to go, as the linear path of this game where some paths led to deadends was pretty annoying imo, but it was also cause I wanted to beat every optional boss in this game for non-dlc. Lastly I kinda do think there should be more variety in the enemy types, as I did notice a repeat, and some enemy types were just the worst ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ enemies I had ever had to fight, looking at you Jailer.

EDIT: DLC
Finally got to the DLC, and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it was peak, ESPECIALLY ringed city. Ashes of Ariandel is a really damn good DLC, but is a bit short and isn't really good till the very end with the final boss, which earns a S tier spot, but also has a 2nd optional boss which is kinda bleh? 8/10. However, Ringed city is EASILY a top tier DLC and makes Dark Souls III so damn good. The atmosphere, questline, lore and especially the bosses are INSANELY good (especially you, Gael). I just wish I could replay Gael again without having to do another NG+, cause my god was he peak. 10/10

Conclusion
Dark Souls III is a magical Souls RPG. While I do kinda expect other souls games to surpass the game for me personally, Dark Souls III was still amazing to play through. I can't wait to come back for the dlc once they go on sale, as I will revisit this game for those when they do. Lastly I do hope that Hidetaka Miyazaki does not stop with dropping masterpiece after masterpiece, it can't be healthy for him to do this much carrying for the video game industry.
9.5/10

10/10 easily
Elden Ring is a rare occurrence where a modern game comes out... that actually breaks normal grounds for what a game is. This game is probably the first time in awhile where I bought a game same week, and actually beat it the same year as I usually play older games or niche games due to how stale the current AAA games have been. While this isn't my first souls game, this is the first souls game I have beaten as of writing this review. Elden Ring's exploration, combat, boss design, freedom and expression of classes, and how visually jaw dropping many locations where (bad graphics btw). While this game does have its issues, especially when it came to performance and of course the difficulty spike everyone knows of, they weren't enough to put me off from this amazing game.

Gameplay
Elden Ring took many of the gameplay aspects that were from previous souls games, and put them into this one game. I have always loved the hit and dodge mechanic of the souls game, but this one made something that I haven't been able to enjoy SOOOO much till now... Playing as a mage focused class. Many times in previous souls games, mages were just worse overall when compared to other classes, or when they were broken, it was a single strat and just a big ass fireball... In Elden Ring however omg mages are so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun it isn't fair (a ton of people complain and I love it LMAO). Mages in this game just had such a HUGE variety of spells, and especially as patches came and went, made a ton of spells viable compared to just having 1 single spell viable which what it felt like before. This game satisfied me COMPLETELY for my fantasy of being a powerful mage in a world, with a ♥♥♥♥ ton of cool ass spells. Even in PVP I feel like I actually stand a chance unlike before where everyone with a brain cell could just dodge everything I sent at them. While I did not use summons my first playthrough, I had a ton of fun with weapon arts, which were excellent in this game.

Boss Designs
Also beautiful asf in this game. I LOVED the boss fights in this game, Rykard, Elden Beast, Dragonlord, maybe Mogh if I didn't one shot him lmao, so many beautiful bosses in this game and I just loved most of them. While there were a few stains that I just kinda didn't like, Godskin Duo for example or the Commander Niall, most of the bosses were amazing to me. I know a ton of people say that the repeated and reused bosses were a letdown for them, I actually viewed this as a positive, as it made me realize now only how powerful I have become, but a boss I used to struggle on I would deal with ease since I basically knew their patterns so well now. This game also had the best gimmick souls fight in the series with Rykard, omg that ♥♥♥♥ was perfection. I also know that a ton of people hated Malenia and even Elden Beast, but they were just amazing bosses imo. This is from a mage's POV so it may change on your class, but I did usually hate bosses that were in tight corridors, which is def a mage issue.

Story/Characters
This game's story is told in a world building, non-linear style, which I LOVED. The lore in this game were just amazing, even when I was a bit lost during certain story points, after reading item descriptions and everything else, I got the idea from it. I also loved a ton of the characters in this game, Dung Eater (killed him sry), Melina, Radahn's backstory, Roderika and the blacksmith Hewg, Blaidd, Ranni, Gideon, all of them I cared a ton for. Of course I can see why some people wouldn't care for them especially if they don't care for the story or skip the dialogue and item descriptions, but for me I would feel bad for them whenever certain story points took place. This game isn't my FAVORITE story from the games I have played, but the lore is just super interesting and I LOVED the non-linear story the game told still. The "Dark Souls Item Description" meme still lives on and I love it.

Music
Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. I love Souls Music, and I loved Elden Ring music. SOO many bosses with just epic musics, and especially having the final boss theme, be the main theme song was just chef's kiss. No Lyrics song in this game mostly so none would be something I would listen to during a random playlists, but whenever I want to feel motivated, or just want to remember the badass music in this game I will def be going back to listen to it again.

Difficulty
Ah difficulty, the best part of any souls game is back for Elden Ring. Yes, this game has the potential to be the easiest souls games with summons and broken ass builds, but the way I played it, this game def kicked my ass a ton. Malenia and the end boss fights, and a ton of others I were just amazing challenges for me. Malenia especially who took me 13 HOURS to finally kill, and final boss taking me 5 hours of attempts. The game punishes you greatly for doing repeated mistakes, which is a staple for a souls game. However, imo, there were some times where my deaths felt kinda bs, late game most enemies start to get the potential to just 1 or 2 shot you. Even tho I was a mage with no armor, I still had 40 vigor which was the first soft cap, and although I was never 1 shot a ton like what everyone says they get, sometimes enemies did a bit too much damage for what they should do. Even after that however I still think this game's difficulty was amazing, with a few times were it felt like ds2 bs difficulty, but overall I didn't feel cheated the whole game.

Nitpicks
Performance, def the worst part of the game for me as a PC player. My PC rig does require an upgrade, but when the game first launched my god did it stutter like crazy... However as patches did release, I did notice the performance to become much better. I no longer had the OMEGA stutters like before, but my framerate at times wouldn't consistently reach 60 fps. Wasn't a deal breaker, but during those first weeks was a HUGE annoyance for the stutters. Low framerate now, but atleast it won't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ freeze during a boss fight which was TERRIBLE before. Other then performance, I do think that the late game spike isn't as bad as people made it to be, but it is still there and noticable. Some bosses like Malenia were also a bit too bs, and the fact that the end game boss requires basically 2 full hp bosses to fight back to back, but after awhile I got so good against them that I can probably beat them easily next time, in fact while beating the elden beast a 2nd time to get the neutral elden lord ending (got age of rising stars first time), I beat the final boss 2nd try. Lastly I do think that the game should have more stake of Marikas, while it is a new addition and the walks are less annoying then before, sometimes it wasn't there and that was quite annoying imo... Oh and also when dlc?

Conclusion
This game is just perfection. If a souls game scared you off before, give Elden Ring a shot cause I believe this game could hook you in, then introduce you to the beautiful world of Souls games. I LOVED the difficulty of this game, combat, story, characters, mages, boss designs, so much of this game was just a straight 10/10. While late game does get a bit bad, and the performance was making me think of giving this game a 9-9.5/10 + difficulty spike, as patches game thru, the performance became playable, and I actually liked the difficulty spike at the end as my mage build became increasingly stronger. These types of modern games blowing my mind are far and few between, which is why I think we should savor these games, cause they ain't as common as we wish they were.
10/10, perfection. Top 5 for me.

2/10
(This Review is the retail version, I did not play the M3SA build as I was basically near the end and wanted to finish the retail version. Plus M3SA broke my saves lmao)

This game is basically everything you have heard of. It is ♥♥♥♥♥♥, is it buggy, it is unplayable without cheats, the game just had such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass rep... that I had to play it to experience the game. NOTHING in the game made sense, the story, combat, mechanics, any ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing made zero sense... but it was also kinda charming in its own way. The game was so trash at points that I just had to stop and laugh, but if I was asked to play the game again in the retail state I would rather eat a jar of nails before I do that again cause my god it was boring.

Story
Trash, ass, makes no sense, 0 continuity, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ cutscenes, nothing about the story made sense. They just shoe horned in many half life characters like freeman (who you barely even give a ♥♥♥♥ about in the story cause even they forget about him), Gman, and of course the models they decided to steal from. Quite honestly I even tried to follow the story and I just ended up having my brain twisted cause of how confusing and all of the place the story is. The pacing just made zero sense, you just seemingly teleport everywhere with no explanation why, characters are introduced then killed off the very next scene, and there were 0 care of the story... However, the cutscenes were def the highlight of this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game, as they were just really funny to go through cause of how bad it was... which is probably the only reason why I even played through the game was to see how ♥♥♥♥ the story can get.

Gameplay
Trash, I hated the level design, I hated the menu forced, I hated how they made the half life combat worse by trying to over complicate it, I hated the enemy placements and ♥♥♥♥. I hated it, which just makes me even more angry cause I love half life combat actually, but oh well. It was also super easy to just get lost cause there will be confusing things you have to do in the game, and the only reason why I solved them was that I either got lucky after searching for hours, or I remember pyrocynical's video about it to solve it. At one point during Act II and the snowy area (which is the largest level in the game btw), my sprint button broke... but I didn't realize that. I played thru the longest and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ level in the game... walking. I had to sv_cheats 1 and load in the maps manually, spawn back my guns manually just to progress... How tf was this game released LMAO.

Characters
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAH... ok in all seriousness tho the characters sucked ass. Mitchell was just duke nukem 2.0, but had the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ character development, but atleast he isn't as bad as any other characters who are ass, turn bald, keemstar or pyrocynical soldiers, or just die the scene after... Terrible LMAO

Pros
Cutscenes were funny... the game was so bad that it was kinda funny at times

Nitpicks/cons
everything, ♥♥♥♥ the car levels, ♥♥♥♥ the snow level, ♥♥♥♥ the levels that are big for no reason, ♥♥♥♥ the levels where I got lost and had to rub the walls to find out the solution, ♥♥♥♥ that I had to cheat to finish the game... ♥♥♥♥ this game... but atleast it was kinda funny.

Conclusion
Don't play this game, it is as bad as everyone says it is. The M3SA build is better, but it is as most an average source game for the M3SA build, which isn't even finished yet... However the money doesn't even go to them if you buy this ♥♥♥♥ product, it goes to the scummy ass developer who made this ♥♥♥♥. Just, pls, don't buy this game, even if it is on sale...
2/10 (1.5/10 if you skip cutscenes)

9/10
This game was just as good as I remembered it being, While I do think Portal 2 is the better overall game, Portal 1's focus on making you feel so alone and uneasy was just beautifully done in this game, which is a theme that Portal 2 does use less of. The puzzles are pretty easy for me now, as I have played soooo much Portal, and especially fan mods of Portal that heavily increase difficulty, that the current puzzles were obviously very easy for me and I breezed through them, but that is just something that happens when you replay portal games tbh.
Gameplay
Innovative, clean, and the best Puzzle Platformer out there. Nothing feels more satisfying then to finally solve a puzzle after analyzing the room for a bit. While it was rare for me to figure out what to do as they were very outlined on the solution, it was still amazing of a feeling to figure out the puzzle even after all these time. The game is pretty short, and while I did replay it so I was able to shave half of the usual time, I still think the game's pacing overall was very solid. My favorite is def act 3 of the game, as it just causes everything building up to finally pay off.

Story
While not as straight forward and told as in Portal 2, what Portal 1 does do beautifully is visual story telling (and GLaDOS taunting you the whole game), while also making you question if you are really alone. As you progress through the game you start to question "why are there cameras constantly watching my every movement?" or "why are there glass panels that seem like people should be watching me?", and lastly "who is this rat man?". While the story is still told to you via GLaDOS, the best part of the story is most defiantly what is around you and how you analyze each location.

Music
It's Portal Music, of course it's amazing. While there weren't as many memorable songs compared to it's sequel since most of the game is quiet, there were still a ton of songs that were just outright beautiful (or thrilling depending on which song you are talking about).

Characters
This game only really had 1 character, GLaDOS, and that was all the game really needed (unless you count Rat Man's ramblings). While the sequel introduced many more characters, having GLaDOS as this unknown entity, unsure what their motivations are, or if they even care for your safe keeping was amazing.

Conclusion
Portal 1 was, and still is, an amazing Puzzle Platformer game. While the game's replay value can be a bit hindered as you already know the puzzles, it is still a treat to figure out the easter eggs and little story pieces the game throws in each corner. I still do think Portal 2 is overall the better package, Portal 1 will still hold a place in my heart as the best one in terms of feeling alone, unease, and best of all, the feeling of being watched/ somebody should be there but isn't and my god I loved every second of that feeling.
9/10

Pretty short game, but honestly it is always refreshing to experience that valve humor once again. Even though I don't own a steam deck, it was still very playable with just a regular 3rd party controller. Also Cave Johnson was a treat to listen to again and the robot buddy you have alongside. The story was also pretty good to follow alongside, again for the length that was given.
Sentry Toilet.
8.5/10. Just play it bruh it's 30 minutes long.

6/10
(will review this game as Final Fantasy I, will talk about the pixel remaster later)
The first JRPG (second to Dragon Quest) to come out that laid the foundation for future JRPG and turn based combat forever. This game had it all, party system, shop, random encounters, and the exploration. The biggest issue that this game has going for it, is that it was the first JRPG of its kind. The story, combat, exploration and dungeons were all very basic and bare-bones, but its hard to get mad at it since the original came out around 1987, and the core gameplay def shows there.
Story
your basic 4 warriors, 4 elemental crystals and 1 bad dude that you barely know about till the very end. It wasn't anything special, but it got the game started and flowing enough to where it was just fine enough for me. Being able to name your warriors was amazing, since with the lack of characters, I was able to roleplay with each characters being named after my friends, which helped me bring along my friends and tell them about our adventures (or who is doing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or who is OP currently).
Gameplay
The combat of this game is pretty fun for me, but that is just cause I am a sucker for JRPG and turn-based combat. There aren't any modern remedies like the action combat of future ff games, abilities for non-magic users and such, just a basic turn-based combat. Exploration was honestly really damn good, and still impresses me how it was done on a damn nes. My biggest complaint is def the fact that non-magic users didn't have abilities, but did basically all the single-target damage while the mages had really good multi-target spells, but became buff sticks since single target dps is laughable. Another annoyance is the lack of repel, or ways to just avoid random encounters for low-level enemies, which felt like wastes of time.
Difficulty
Easy, got a bit too easy mid game since I got over-leveled thanks to me getting lost a ton and grinded a ton cause of it. Wish there was a difficulty increase option, but oh well.
Complaints
This had the quality that other nes games had at its time, the sense of direction of where the ♥♥♥♥ to go is trash. So many times I had to look up a guide, because I either accidently skipped dialogue and the info giver didn't repeat it, or I would get an item out of order and now I had 0 clue what to do. Other times I would follow the order, but either I had not idea who tf to talk to, or the info givers were way too vague. It was really annoying, and this game def needs a guide to play through in modern times.
Pixel Remaster
This game looks WAYYY better then the NES version thanks to the new art, ui (which is kinda hit or miss), and especially the lighting and particle system, adds so much more to the game and made looking at the game a treat. The only complaint I could give, is that the font they used was kinda out of place for the game, but I got used to it overtime.
Conclusion
For the first in many of its series, it was pretty good. Modern times, I think its an ok JRPG, and the average JRPG that someone would think of. Everything about the game was staples and bare-bones, which makes sense as it was the formula which future titles used to expand upon themselves. I am glad I played this game, but unless you want to experience the 1st final fantasy game yourself or doing what I did, and playing them all in order, then there are better JRPG's out there currently.
6/10

8.5/10
This game was a pretty short, but cute game. I loved a ton of aspects about this game, ranging from the characters and their goofy quests, to the amazing gliding you can do around the island. If I had to complain, I do wish the characters were a bit more deep, as after the quests I just ignored them, which makes sense due to the length of this game, which I beat in basically an hour and a half. It is really hard to hate on this game, as it didn't feel like filler (apart from getting coins for the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ scalper bird for the golden feathers). Was pretty fun overall, and I enjoyed my time with it.
8.5/10

9/10
Intro
SMT III: Nocturne was good, really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. It felt like Persona without the heart... nah Im just kidding but it was a really damn JRPG. This was my first SMT game, and I came from playing all the Persona Games except 1, and I went into this thinking it will be a hard as nails JRPG, and damn did it nail it. This game is simply hard as nails, while also have really dark themes, as each side have desperate reasons that are super polarizing of viewpoints as they want to form the new world their way. Even with this, the game in general was a treat to play through.
Gameplay
The gameplay of this game is def the best part of this game, with press turn, A.I being super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tough to fight against, and the difficulty made this game so damn good. I played through this game on hard, and it was really fun to struggle through each fight (even if dying was super damn common and I lost a ton of hours cause of it LOL). Having the threat of losing all of your precious grinding time, finding the next save point as any encounter can kill you in one turn, the dread when you miss, or the enemy crits felt so damn good, esp when you hit them back. If I had to criticize an aspect of the game, overworld demons would had been a bit better then random encounters, but it wasn't that bad of an issue since you had items/skills like reduce encounters to low-level demons, so if they don't matter in terms of leveling, you can just avoid them. The issue I do have tho was that it was super easy to get lost in this game, I did do the TDE ending, but it still was confusing asf to navigate this game, basically made me use a guide at points of this game due to it being confusing where tf to go. Sometimes grinding can be a bit of an issue as well, but thats fine cause Hard Mode + SMT = obv grinding, but Macca grinding wasn't fun esp when the whole damn team becomes confused and throws away 120,000 Macca man ♥♥♥♥ you LOL.
Difficulty
The difficulty of this game is def the highlight of the SMT series, and it was sooo satisfying to complete the game cause of it. Even though it felt impossible at times, it also felt fair for most of the times I died, as many of the times I died were cause of mistakes I felt like I caused (except early level attacks from behinds those were bs). The difficulty can def scare people who aren't used to hard asf turn-based combat, but for me it was just amazing especially when persona (especially you Persona 2: Innocent sins) can be a bit sad comparing to SMT.
Story
The story was pretty dark themed, with reason and ♥♥♥♥. The characters were also super interesting, with even demons having characters as well which was pretty cool of a story telling. SMT III's story is def what I would call the defining point of SMT III, as it wasn't as focused as I would had hoped, since Gameplay was def more focused on. Even though I loved going through each character's arc, as they delve deeper into chaos, its a story that I will remember for its themes instead of what happened throughout the whole game, thats where the gameplay kicks in.
Music
Its badass, rock was such an amazing choice for this game, and I just loved it. It was annoying that the game had compressed music, but the wonderful modding community helped that aspect. Amala's Network battle theme, dante's theme, Lucifer's theme, so many songs I can list that I still listen on spotify sometimes, I just wish the damn original songs on spotify weren't greyed out cause I have to listen to the remixed/ fan covers of it, which is fine but I do wish the original songs were there.
Port
Prob the biggest issue with this game is the port. 30 fps lock, compressed music w/o mods, 4:3 cinematic, mouse camera is buggy asf, a ♥♥♥♥ ton of lag spikes even on PC like its really easy to list what went wrong with this port then what went right. There are positives of the port, even though I never played Nocturne, but voice acting was really good of an addition, and helped out the story and characters out alot, demon inheritance choice was super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nice, and some other things I don't know of were pretty helpful (I do know however thank god Dante got Pierce now, it def seemed to help him out to be a badass teammate instead of average). But the downsides as listed were pretty apparent, like 30 fps lock was just dumb, and why tf is the music compressed like you have CD songs which fans modded for you why tf?
Conclusion
This is def a really good SMT starter game, as I hella enjoyed it and I am super glad I spend 140 hours on it (some were afk but a ton was cause of death LOL). If the port and price were better/cheaper, it would be a free ass recommendation, but charging $50 + $10 for dante is SUPER damn steep, and I really do hope they reduce the price down the road.
9/10, featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series

This game was part of my childhood during the xbox 360 era, and tbh I always thought that this game was always better then dying light in terms of gameplay, story and character... until I played this game again with friends. This game imo has not aged very well and it becomes painfully obvious when you compare it to the spiritual successor of Dying Light (even though that game also had its issues).

Story
The story was just terrible LOL. Easily the most forgettable part of this whole game. Many of the actions the characters do are either painfully obvious, or painfully stupid. It didn't help that the mocap/animations for this game didn't age the best, so everyone seemed like they had a stick glued to the back of themselves, and did everything they could to make sure that stick never broke. The ending especially was just pretty bad, but around act I, act II, and a few moments of act III the story had many good moments. But act IV was just terrible and really ruined the story as a whole for me.

Characters
The characters for me are pretty recognizable as I used to spend hundreds of hours with them during the 360 era. However really looking into the characters and seeing them without the nostalgia goggles, they really sucked in terms of how they were presented. Many of them seemed so two dimensional, and would make poor decisions that was just so painful to sit through. Riptide def fleshed them out more, but the main cast was just way too stiff for my liking. The side characters that weren't in act I were just plain bad. They either had 0 character, or died after you left them for 10 minutes.

Gameplay
The gameplay for this game is honestly, still pretty good. However now that dying light is out which improved the game tremendously, the gameplay is just ok. I don't know if it was just me, but the zombies in this definitive edition just felt SOOO light, and I could kick them away for days without worry at all. Other aspects like no dropkick, and a meh skilltree led to the game just feeling like it was missing something that dying light filled. It's a shame cause this formula was where it all started, but newer games imo have just done it better now.

Tone
This is an extra point for this game, but the tone of this game was just all around the place. It seemed like it wanted to be taken seriously, but the poor animations, story telling and decision making just made this game a comedy instead. I know the developers changed the tone last minute cause it was supposed to be more comedy, but the dark tone just didn't work well for me and I love those types of story telling. Many of the moments in the story were too cliche for me to worth caring for.

Last notes
This game, playing it again, just showed me how painfully average it was. The endgame just seemed like it wouldn't be as fun as other games would be, and even though I have experienced maxing out my character in the 360, I just don't see myself doing it for this game. It really sucks because I held high praise for this game I used to play, and to realize just how PAINFULLY average it was, it really makes me wish I just didn't play it again.

Saving Grace
This game's coop mode is honestly pretty fun and the only reason why I would recommend this to anyone. The difficulty however is obvious that it wasn't scaled for coop, but the laughs you can get from this game makes up for the easy difficulty of this game. Death doesn't matter cause you respawn, zombies can easily be swarmed by the players and the 4 combined abilities makes this game a pretty easy cakewalk. So if you play this game solo, the difficulty is def much more fun in terms of gameplay, but the poor character, story and a bit poorly aged combat system compared to newer titles makes this really hard to recommend solo. But with coop I think it has its worth.

Conclusion
I am a bit disappointed to see just how average this game really was. Maybe it was due to my friends not caring for the story, so I was left with being rushed to do the story dialogue. However I do feel like if I TRULY invested into the story it still wouldn't be close to a memorable story as any other game I have played.

Kinda of a shame
4.5/10, may have its worth if you play in COOP, but single player just buy dying light... which also has a poor story LOL.

10/10
Nier Automata is not like any other game, from the gameplay and especially to the story/plot and the characters who live inside the world. Automata is a story about a war between the Androids vs the Machines in order to dictate the future of Humanity. I could go on and on about the story but to put it simply, this is one of the greatest game stories I have ever had the privilege to play through.

Gameplay
The gameplay in this game is just fantastic. The heart of the game is mainly Close Quarter Combat with melee weapons, which by itself could be another game itself, its that good. They not only perfected this combat system, but they also had a ton of other systems in the game that were amazingly implemented, such as flying segments, hacking segments and many other systems that just all work together like a charm. It should be illegal to have this much depth in a game, but the madlads did it somehow.

Story
Its hard to take a deep dive into what the story is, as it would be very hard to avoid spoilers. All I can say is the Story is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Amazing. It sets many emotions for the player, and has had me teary eyed many times throughout the story. The game does need multiple playthroughs to get to the full story and true ending, but each playthrough is completely different from the last, even if they share similarities.

Characters
They are amazing (and hot). What more can I say? Each character not only have such amazing character design, but have complex arcs for each of them. Even the side characters make you think twice about real life, asking questions about hatred in humanity, and the real reason why we eat each other and eat our own people at times. The chemistry between 2B and 9S is just amazing, and their respected Operators just bounced off of them so beautifully.

Message of the game
This game has many different interpretations, many which of course, have spoilers for them. I greatly recommend reading each dialogue with care, as I never once felt like I had my time wasted reading through what each character had to say, as it added to the core message of the game and how it views Humanity in the future and even the present.

Difficulty
I played this game on Hard. There was an even higher difficulty of Very Hard, but that I do not recommend as it makes the player die in one hit, which tbh isn't the greatest experience especially for new players (even experienced dislike it). For Hard, lock-on was disabled and of course, enemies hit harder and you hit weaker. Having no lock-on wasn't that bad tbh, and only became an issue when it came to trying to hack targets and the crosshair just wouldn't target them. Other then that, the game was actually pretty hard during the early phases of the game. Many of my deaths felt earned and were at my fault, but I also experienced times where I would just get one shotted a bit too many times. Nearing the mid to end game was when the difficulty def slowed down, as equipping proper chip sets made the game a much easier experience, which felt earned in my book. Grinding side stories also helped.

Main and Side Story Quests
The main quest as explained, was just fantastic. Seeing each character's uprising and downfall as things turned for the worst was just fantastic writing. Not only was the Main storyline amazing, but even the Side Story Quests were just as amazing. Each of them were individual missions for somebody or just a side character, but they all had one thing in common, amazing writing in the story plot. They each cleverly depicted faults that humanity has, and shows the good and dark sides both android and machine side. It soon became easy to see just how similar each side is, as they react to the same scenario exactly the same way even if they swear they are polar opposites. I strongly recommend doing all the side quests, as they are super worth it and enjoyable to do.

Music
O.M.G the music man. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it bangs in this game. A ton of Atmospheric music, followed up by vocals were just outstanding. So many bangers in this ost, and so many cry in bed songs as well :(. Not only were there many songs for each area in the game, but also music for pivotal story moments, and even unique music for each side story, making the songs never obnoxious, overstayed. I just loved the hell out of the OST in this game, and the composers were geniuses to make it. The use of Violin, Piano and especially again, the Violin were so beautiful that I can go on and on about how amazing the music is. This OST is def a spotify repeated ost now in my playlist, its that good that Idk if I would ever get bored of the music. It can range from gym music (prob), to study/relax music to just bangers to listen on the side. I just really hope that others can listen to the music as well and experience what a masterpiece game OST sounds like.

The game in itself is just perfect, it def reaches my Top 10 games of all time, and it makes me kinda sad to think that I will never experience the game like how I did my first time ever again. I bought this game around 2018 but never played it till recently when my friends told me about just how amazing this game really is. Boy do I not only regret never playing this game sooner, but the missed time I could had spent thinking about how amazing this game really is... and there is one good reason for why I delayed playing this game.

The PC Port
the PC port of this game is just... awful. Its not very good tbh. It comes with your usual 60 fps lock, 30 fps cutscenes, but what makes it worse is that the base game doesn't even work properly. You are basically REQUIRED to download the FAR mod in order to make the game look actually presentable and not blurry as ♥♥♥♥. It also fixes a ton of other issues that just should not even be there in the first place. I also installed another mod that basically makes KB+M actually viable, as the base game has not only ♥♥♥♥♥♥ KB+M camera controls, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like the shooting sections just outright being impossible with the controls, and worst of all... no dedicated evade button like wtf? Downloading both of these mods made the gameplay experience much much better. Worst part is that Square Enix PROMISED they would fix these issues after a ton of fans review bombed the game after they actually DID fix it... only in the PC game pass version. So when was that promise? well 4 months ago thank you very much! makes me think they only did it as a PR stunt.

Cons/Nitpicks
Most of the cons comes from the PC port of this game (surprise), but other then that the other nitpicks come with how tedious some sidequests came to be sometimes being a fetch this many items and come back that was thankfully mitigated with most of the time having required items you already own and a kickass backstory to the side quest. Also the frustration of hard early game (which was imo still very fun to play with) was an issue, but was again mitigated by the chip system which is just so good of a system to begin with. Another nitpick was how expensive and not worth Pod upgrades were, which mostly requested ♥♥♥♥ like 10 pure water, when I have found like 6 my WHOLE playthrough. Upgrading chips and weapons are always worth and easy to do, but pod upgrades just requested too much supply, and the supplies were an inconvenient, as they weren't dropped by enemies but were laying around the game instead. Hacking can also sometimes be tedious, but was mixed well enough to not be THAT big of an issue.

In Conclusion
This game is simply, a MastaPiece. Experiences like this game are so far and infrequent that it makes me sad to see AAA studios not having the balls to experiment and go wild as the devs of this game did. Such unique ideas and crazy story elements/plots make this one of a kind and a deserved fanbase. I have yet to play Replicant, but it is most def on my to play list now after experiencing what an amazing game this is... simply perfection
10/10, enters my MastaPiece rankings