InspectahDerk

Overall this was a fun game, but I definitely had my fair share of frustrations. Navigating the world can be difficult, and I oftentimes was holding the map out in front of me as I traversed just to keep the waypoint on the screen. There are also many blocked areas that can’t be accessed until certain points in the story, which isn’t communicated well until you find out the hard way. I would spend twenty minutes trying to find my way to a collectible, only to finally give up and come across it later in the story. This discouraged exploration, which defeats the purpose of a well designed open world. I enjoyed the gameplay for the most part, with the exception of the hand-to-hand combat, which is tolerable at best. Thankfully there isn’t much of it as long as you’re stealthy, which isn’t too difficult most of the time. The voice acting is also great. Troy Baker does a phenomenal job emulating Harrison Ford, and the villain, Voss, is terrific. Gina, your primary companion throughout the game, grated on my nerves pretty often, however. Overall I enjoyed it, but I definitely don’t think it’s a game of the year contender or anything like that.

3

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At long last, my fourteen year journey with this game has come to an end. I really enjoyed it when it first released in 2010, but I hit a late game difficulty spike and bounced off. I’ve always wanted to go back to it, and I’m glad I finally did all these years later. It’s aged really well. The graphics still look fantastic, and the overall aesthetic, presentation, and music are superb. The combat system really flows well, too. It’s less about assigning actions (I used auto-battle for most of my time with it), and more about assigning jobs. Each of the six playable characters have access to certain jobs that grant them different abilities, and combat is all about setting up paradigms, or combinations of specific jobs for each character, to best suit your situation. You can go in to battle with all three of your characters in a class focused on offense, and when the going gets tough, switch over to a more defensive paradigm with medics, tanks, etc. It’s a really intuitive system. The only downside is that the game doesn’t remember your presets if you switch characters, so any time you want a different party set up, you have to go in and reconfigure all of your paradigms. This can get tedious later in the game when you’re fighting battles that really require strategic preparation and frequently have to switch characters. The game can also get really difficult in certain spots, and the plethora of game over screens I saw across my 50 hour playthrough is my main gripe with the game. I was usually able to overcome these obstacles by looking up guides that told me what the optimum paradigm configuration was, but these instances tended to grind an otherwise well paced game to a halt. Overall, though, I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII quite a bit. It doesn’t reach the highs of the series due to the aforementioned difficulty curve, as well as a weaker cast and forgettable villain, but it’s still a solid entry worth experiencing.

3

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It Takes Two was my favorite game of 2021, one of the best games I’ve played in recent years, period. Hazelight came out of nowhere with that one and just bowled me over with a sensational cooperative experience the likes of which I’d never seen before. Split Fiction is right there with it. It doesn’t have the benefit of surprise that ITT did, now I know what Hazelight is capable of and my expectations are higher as a result. But they hit it out of the park again with this one. It’s magnificent. Another brilliant cooperative 3D action platformer/puzzler. That studio has really found their groove here, in a niche that isn’t really being filled by anyone else, and they’ve become one of the most exciting developers in the industry for me. If you’ve got a partner willing and able to join you, this game is a no brainer.

2

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This was probably the most ready to be done with a Yakuza game I’ve been since 5, though it’s definitely not as bloated as that one was. It’s mid tier compared to the rest of the series, which means it’s still pretty good. I think the ship stuff is fun early on, but gets repetitive after a while. I was aiming to get every achievement in the game, but when I realized that would require finishing every ship battle in the colosseum, I quickly gave up that ambition, not because of the difficulty, but the tedium. The story is pretty inconsequential, though there are some nice moments at the end. When it comes to Majima as a protagonist, Yakuza 0 is, predictably, far better in every respect, but it’s still fun to see the Mad Dog of Shimano get his own game.

1

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1

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Fun combat, okay characters (Emmrich is great though), wish I had more agency over my character’s personality. Pleasant surprise. Hopeful for the next Mass Effect.

1

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Thought this one was good not great. It gets off to a really strong start, introducing some great characters and an intriguing story. But along the way it just loses steam. The charming character moments are fewer and further between, making way for a generic resistance vs. empire storyline that forgets about the little things that made the opening hours so good. I did enjoy the combat quite a bit, especially when I got into a good groove with it. The licenses and gambits can be a bit cumbersome, but nothing too egregious. If I had time I’d go through and do all the optional hunts and side quests, but I’ve been chipping away at this thing for almost two months now and just need something different.

0

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What an absolute joy from start to finish. It’s a game that starts out strong and continues to get better and better as it goes, and it never really falters. Like the great Mario platformers, it’s brimming with creativity and brilliant ideas, and you can’t wait to see what’s around the next corner, or, in this case, beneath the next layer. And that final layer, well, just phenomenal stuff that really sealed this game as my Game of the Year thus far. And the postgame challenges don’t ever get unfairly difficult (though a few did teeter on the edge of frustrating), and didn’t leave me with a sour taste in my mouth once I did all there was to do. 777 Banandium Gems and 696 Fossils later, I’m left wanting more, and I can’t wait to see what this incredible development team does next, whether it’s Mario, Donkey Kong, or something else entirely. Just an outstanding video game and a true showcase for the Nintendo Switch 2.

0

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Fun prequel to FF7. The original story is a little weak with a villain that I couldn’t stand, but the times where it coincides with FF7 are great. Loved seeing Cloud and Zack together, and some other cameos were fun. Zack was a good protagonist. I enjoyed the short optional missions, and found myself having a better time clearing those out than when I was mainlining the main quest. Solid game.

0

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Really enjoyed this one. Despite the aged graphics, I thought it looked great with the pre-rendered backgrounds. The smaller screen on the Nintendo Switch might’ve helped it in that regard. The turn based combat is fun and engaging, and I liked customizing my characters’ different loadouts with the Materia system. Interesting story with compelling characters and a phenomenal soundtrack. Not too long, either, the modern quality of life improvements like being able to speed up time and turn off random encounters definitely helped move things along on occasion. It’s easy to see why this game is so beloved by so many. Still holds up.

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Very let down after the previous game was so amazing. Everything seemed worse. Repetitive combat, dull story, frustrating puzzles. Some cool moments but overall left disappointed.

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Really fun 3D platformer. Loved exploring the varied levels. Not a huge fan of the challenge levels. Fun to platinum.

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This is one that’s long been on my backlog, and as I’ve really become a fan of JRPGs over the last few years, it feels great to have finally completed this seminal video game. It’s easy to see why Chrono Trigger is so revered. It’s practically flawless. The pacing is great, it never gets bogged down in unnecessary fluff (took me about 23 hours to finish), and I never found the need to grind for higher levels or better equipment. The difficulty is perfectly balanced, with excellent turn-based combat that is neither too simple nor overly complex. The writing is fantastic and there’s not a weak character in the cast. And the score is just beautiful. No notes. Just immaculate. A classic for a reason.

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