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8/10
The combat is a nice Dark Souls lite which I appreciated. Ended up finding the skills I liked and pretty much stuck with em. Didn't really like how it takes the whole game to unlock the skill trees basically, seems a bit of a waste.
The game looks gorgeous, there's an intense amount of detail in the character models and it has the same kind of scale GoW is known for. Also very colorful and each realm looks very unique. Music is also good, looks of very fitting orchestral stuff but nothing I'd seek outside of the game.
Story wise, it's surprising what a departure this is from the past games. So much focus is spent developing its characters and the relationship between parent and child. Throughout the story there are examples of where parent and child disagreed, betrayed, loved, or hated one another and the fate that befell them. Obviously considering Kratos' past he struggles with the fear that his son will follow in his footsteps and make his mistakes. I thought that they did a good job building up the relationship between them, even though sometimes it felt a bit rushed. It's certainly leaps and bounds ahead of other GoW games.
If you mix all the stuff above together, what you get is a really solid game. Great visuals, satisfying combat, a character driven story, and hella setpiece moments made this definitely my favorite God of War game.
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8/10
This is a great remake. I was skeptical going in, as I'm not a huge horror fan and I have no nostalgia for Resident Evil, but man, they did great. Visually, it looks pretty good. It runs very smooth and there's a lot of detail in some of the gore and the environment. I didn't find it particularly scary, but there is some good jumps in it and certainly some tense moments.
The gameplay is what really shines. It controls just like how you'd want it to. It kind of feels like they finally finished what they started with RE4. There's lots of helpful additions along the way, like telling you if you've found everything in an area, or notifying you when you've run out of uses for a particular key item. I do kind of wish we got more time in the police station, because I didn't enjoy the sewers or the lab nearly as much.
The story as far as I know mirrors the original and while it doesnt take any crazy twists and turns, it's still fun to watch it unfold.
Overall really fun. Definitely gonna take a stab at the Claire route at some point.
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8/10
I feel like I'm in the minority in saying I wish I liked Sekiro more. Obviously an 8/10 is a good rating, but this is another game in the same vein as one of my favorite series of all time, so going in I definitely had high hopes.
It just seems like a lot of what other people love I'm not that in to. The verticality of the game is amazing and traversing it with the grappling hook is very satisfying, however, I found that having essentially three levels of environment to explore stressful as fuck. As someone who always combed every corner of a level in Dark Souls, I'm no stranger to exploring but the amount of stuff that's hidden away is a lot.
I also would have rather had less minibosses. It felt like they were everywhere at some points and it just felt like to explore at all I had to beat some boss every time. It made the fights feel less like I was tackling some great foe and more just like I was gated temporarily.
The combat is also another point of contention for me. Overall, it's great, but I found there were so many times that even when I was timing my strikes I'd still get fucked by animation priority. Or the camera would fuck up cause the enemy would jump close to me and I'd be left looking the wrong direction and get slaughtered. Or just when I get hit, fall on the ground, and get murdered before I could even stand up or dodge away. I just didn't like how that seemed to happen a bunch. Plus with some of the tools and a bunch of the skills, it felt so often like there was never enough time to actually use them, especially against bosses. Everything was too fast and there were plenty of enemies who'd just ignore whatever skill you used.
Anyway. Overall I still thought it was a fun game. It looks really good, the combat is fun and satisfying overall, there's some cool bosses and there were so many times I got to relive that Dark Souls moment of "Im never going to win" only to overcome it a bunch of deaths later. Still very satisfying. But I definitely still fall on the Dark Souls side of the Dark Souls vs Sekiro debate.
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8/10
Still a great little experience.
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8/10: Church Route
There's a lot to this game. It took me 43 hours to get through one route and there's four total, so there's a lot of game here if you want it. Between running around the monastery exploring, talking to people, managing your team, the battles, seminars, classes, etc there's a ton of ways to manage everything and sink time into. Towards the end of the game I had maxed supports out with everyone I cared about and they all had really high stats too so I ended up autopiloting a lot more if only because it seemed like I could just steamroll regardless. The first 60% of the game is pretty easy and it ramps up slowly after that till in the last few fights I really had to pay attention. I think they should've trimmed a bit of the extra battles if only because if they really want you to play every route to get all the story, you're gonna be here for a while. For some people that's great, but I was pretty satisfied after spending all that time in the Church route. Judging from what I read of the other routes as well, most of the story revelations are in the route I did anyway so it works out.
While with Fates it felt like Birthright and Conquest were both leading to Revelations, it seems like no one route really holds all the answers here. I kinda wish it did, but I get what they're going for. It's a lot of value if you're somehow who just has one game to play. Either way, the route I played ended pretty satisfyingly and since I married Rhea I think it worked out better. Fun game, but it makes me want to replay Awakening and Revelations to see if the focus those games have is more appealing. I do like the new stuff they've added, like the monsters and the battalions and having a ton of control over your parties growth, but I do really miss making insanely strong children and maybe a little less of the micromanaging.
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I played about half of the game (up until part way through Hotland) and I dropped it and finished the playthrough by watching the rest of the Pacifist route on YouTube.
Personally, the game isn't really my thing. There is certainly a charm to it; there's some good little jokes and certainly quirkiness abound, plus the music can be pretty great, but I never much liked how it looks or what you're actually doing in it. The puzzles were never so hard as to warrant much thought and the combat is all bullet hell which I've never really been that in to. The story itself was actually interesting and I was invested enough to see where it ends up, but when it was presented with art I didn't much care for and gameplay I actively disliked, it was hard to keep playing.
Overall I definitely understand its appeal. The humor is self aware and often pokes fun at tropes in rpg style games especially, the characters are quirky and memorable, and it's unique to see how the story changes depending on how you play it and the choices you make. However, I feel like that's just not enough for me anymore. The Nonary Games series already blew my mind in the same way and I've seen plenty of other quirky games (Portal, Stanley Parable, most Double Fine games) and so I look for a little more from those kinds of games and for me at least, Undertale wasn't that.
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9/10
My favorite Final Fantasy so far. The visuals are a bit aged but they don't get in the way of telling a great story with great characters. There's a beautiful contrast between the beauty of nature and the onset of new technology and science and this is core to the games theme. We've achieved the convenience of modern life, but at what cost? Each of the characters has a personal stake in the story and as much as they want to save the Planet, they want to help themselves. They're believable. Throw a great villain like Sephiroth on top of that and you've got a great cast.
The music is the best in the series and the gameplay was just challenging and customization enough that I got pretty into it. Sphere Grid levels of customization are a bit much for me, so I appreciated FFVII's approach of allowing you to switch things up on the fly and make anyone anything pretty easily.
People are all waiting for the remake to get back in and I was one of them, but honestly, there's no reason to wait when VII holds up as well as it does. Great game.
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Still great
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8/10
Probably the best bang for your buck Pokemon game. Getting to play through the Johto and Kanto regions is great, there's tons of endgame content here. Still looks and sounds great. A bit too many random battle for me, but probably pretty standard for more avid fans.
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