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Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream Mini-Review

Platform played on: PC

Hours played: 42 hours; completed main story

Purely as a game, Atelier Sophie 2 is nothing particularly impressive. It’s satisfying to play on a basic level, and the alchemy system is also well-done and engaging, at least at first. However, the game drags on quite a bit longer than it should, and game-play eventually grows rather stale. The alchemy in particular can really test your patience as it can get tedious and repetitive over time. What keeps Atelier Sophie 2 afloat, however, is the fact that its characters are simply irresistibly lovable, which makes this an extremely warming and heartening experience. Atelier Sophie 2 very much feels like comfort food for the soul—there’s so much heart in the characters that their interactions naturally lit me up inside with good cheer and humor. Although the pacing can be slow and the overall plot isn’t anything too special, the game’s slice-of-life plot has more depth than expected (at least compared to Atelier Sophie, where plot was extremely minimal), and is a satisfying experience, though this goes back again to how likeable the characters are, which makes following them through the game a compelling experience. I won’t go into spoilers, but suffice it to say that the characters develop in a way that is meaningful and also extremely moving in some cases. The ending of the game is especially powerful and will surely tug at the heartstrings of even the most jaded of gamers. Aesthetically, the game’s anime-style graphics and art style is also a genuine treat for the eyes that I really enjoyed, and the music in the game is also surprisingly fantastic, with both epic soundtracks that really rile you up for dungeon-crawling and combat as well as more gentle melodies for its more relaxing moments.

Atelier Sophie 2 is far from the best JRPG ever, but it did what it set out to do very successfully: it put a smile on my face, it made me laugh, and it filled my heart with positive vibes and love. It requires patience to sit through its slow pacing and the more tedious aspects of its gameplay, but there’s no denying its reward: a generous serving of comfort in the form of lovable characters, endearing interactions, and a very, very moving conclusion to its warm little tale.

 Gameplay score: B+ Storyline score: B+ Characters score: A Aesthetics score: A Enjoyment score: A-

Overall Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream score: 82/100

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Horizon Forbidden West Mini-Review

Platform played on: PS5

Hours played: 47 hours; completed main story and about half of optional content (mostly in the first half of the game)

Horizon Forbidden West is utterly gorgeous and is one of the most beautiful-looking games I have ever beheld. But… that’s really about it. To be clear, nothing about Horizon Forbidden West is bad at all. Personally, I also wasn’t impressed by Horizon Zero Dawn, but I do find Horizon Forbidden West to be much better in most aspects. The problem here, rather than it being bad (which it isn’t), is that the game doesn’t have any elements that stand out as being particularly remarkable either. Game-play is fun on a basic level, and the implementation of Dualsense features adds a very nice touch to it which I like. But it quickly grows stale, and eventually it starts feeling more gruelling than it is satisfying. Larger enemies in particular take a really long time to take down, and it becomes a tedious dance of finding out its elemental weakness, shooting at its weak spots, and painstakingly wearing it down. Many battles can often feel too chaotic, and not in a good way either, and playing the game feels really laborious sometimes. The slow item-picking animations are one of my nitpicks that I think contributes to this feeling of labor. The game is also surprisingly unpolished, with many bugs and glitches (though I did not encounter any gamebreaking ones) marring the experience. The open world, while beautiful, rapidly grows stale as well given that it is little more than an extremely repetitive and tedious flood of markers to check off. I made a pretty valiant attempt to explore the open world at first, but eventually it became such a repetitive bore and a chore that I grew extremely repulsed by its typical, Ubisoft-style open world, and decided to just beeline the story quests.

There’s also the problem that the game’s narrative and characters, while not bad, aren’t particularly memorable either. Aloy is a great protagonist, and there are some great scenes involving her here and there, as well as some great interactions with other characters here and there. But none of these come together to create a particularly endearing or memorable narrative experience, and I just didn’t feel like I particularly cared about any of these characters and their narrative arcs. I failed to be charmed by Horizon Zero Dawn’s sci-fi exploration of a post-apocalyptic world with machine lifeforms and other sci-fi jargon thrown into it. I went into Horizon Forbidden West with an open mind, and I was indeed interested in it at first. I do think Forbidden West is more interesting than its predecessor, but eventually, I nevertheless failed to be particularly charmed. What’s here is good, but again, not remarkable. I do also like the way the game handles many of its side quests, which have meaningful narrative content and aren’t just silly and pointless fetch quests. But… since the narrative content didn’t particularly hook me in, this strength didn’t quite manage to be as impactful as it otherwise would have been.

I fully acknowledge that this is likely to be a contrarian opinion, and might be down to my own subjective tastes (since I didn’t really like Horizon Zero Dawn either), but I found Horizon Forbidden West to be a good game, though not a great one. It is certainly extremely beautiful, but this beauty is largely skin-deep, and the overall experience, while not bad, is quite a forgettable one.

 Gameplay score: A- Storyline score: B+ Characters score: B+ Aesthetics score: A Enjoyment score: B+

Overall Horizon Forbidden West score: 79/100

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Elden Ring Review—A review from the perspective of someone who does not like Souls games

Platform played on: PS5

Hours played: 80 hours, completed main story and approximately 60%~70% of optional content

Some background: I’ve dabbled in a couple of Soulslike games here and there, but they are almost never to my tastes. Bloodborne is a notable exception, and is a game I played to completion and actually enjoyed a fair bit. But apart from this sole outlier (which, frankly, may not even be replicated if I were to play it again for the first time today), I’ve never managed to put more than a few hours into any of the Soulslike games I’ve played—this includes Dark Souls 3, Nioh, as well as Sekiro, all of which I grew extremely frustrated by within several hours of game time and eventually dropped entirely. Given my largely unpleasant experiences with Souls games, I had no intention of trying Elden Ring at all, though I ended up giving into the hype and purchasing a copy for myself. I suppose the mere fact that I sank 80 hours into this game should sufficiently clue you into the eventual tone of this review, though I will still say that my first ten hours playing the game were largely filled with regret: why did I make the foolish mistake of giving into FOMO and jumping into a game I knew wasn’t for me?

The game has an immensely steep learning curve that newcomers to these games will undoubtedly struggle with. In fact, unless you’re experienced in these games or extremely patient, I will go as far as to say that this game is virtually impossible to play without at least occasionally checking a guide here and there. Other than introducing you to the barest basics, the game more or less leaves you to figure everything out yourself. If you’re like me, you’ll no doubt find this task to be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. What am I supposed to do with my attribute points? Am I making a mistake? Where should I go next? Have I messed up completely, which is why I’m completely failing at the game? These were just some of the thoughts that ran through my head as I stumbled about the opening sections of the game, Limgrave. A devastating string of non-stop defeats at the hands of Margit, the Fell Omen had me even further convinced that I must have messed up my character irrecoverably, and at that point I made the decision to spend some more time exploring the open world and to make one more attempt at Margit before dropping the game completely. When I made that decision, I had expected to spend only a couple of hours messing about the open world. Instead, I involuntarily ended up spending over 15 hours exploring Limgrave, the Weeping Peninsula, and even parts of Caelid. “I’ll just explore this next corner before stopping,” I told myself. But each corner I explored struck me with so many surprises, so many fantastical and mystical vistas, and so much awe that I kept wanting to see more of the world—and so I did. I kept going, and in so doing, I levelled up quite substantially. When I finally returned to Margit—which is where I was going to drop the game had I failed—I made the miraculous and unthinkable happen: I felled Margit, the Fell Omen. And so I kept going. As one boss after another fell, Elden Ring clicked for me. At some point, I began to know what I was doing, and I began to truly enjoy the experience, and so I kept on playing.

It is clear that I only got this far because of how exceedingly phenomenal Elden Ring’s open world is, which compelled me to keep on going, against all odds. I find the contemporary design ethos of making increasingly large Ubisoft-style open worlds that function as glorified checklists to pad out game length deeply unfortunate, and for this reason, I have a tendency to despise open worlds given that they just feel like a chore to complete. Deprived of any such checklists and markers, however, exploring Elden Ring is a breath of fresh air unlike any other open worlds I’ve played. Exploration in this game feels truly genuine and organic, and rarely ever feels like work. There are constant surprises to be found, and each new biome that you venture into persistently ignites such a powerful spark of wonder that you cannot help but wish to explore more—not because of a checklist that you compulsively feel the need to clear off, but because of a genuine desire to see more of this utterly mysterious, magnificent, and wonderous fantasy world. Elden Ring’s world is simply one of the most gorgeous, awe-inspiring, and breathtaking open worlds ever created—I don’t necessarily mean this in terms of graphical fidelity (though this too is by no means bad), but the diversity and sheer wonder of the game’s landscapes and its flora and fauna is simply incredible. Part of this is also down to how effectively the game weaponizes the fear of the unknown, and turns this into intrigue—make no mistake, Elden Ring is oftentimes absolutely terrifying. Not all the wonders of its world are of beauty—many of these wonders are grotesque horrors that make you churn with disgust or fear. But the awe-striking terrors of Elden Ring make it all the more diverse, all the more fantastical, and all the more captivating—this truly feels like a fully-realized fantasy world, rich with both beauty and horrors that keep you charmed and immersed. This, I believe, is Elden Ring’s single greatest accomplishment—one that dwarves virtually everything that has come before it. All open worlds simply feel mediocre in contrast to this one, and the industry has a tremendous amount it could learn from Elden Ring’s execution of an open world.

As for combat, I have both praise and criticism. Coming into Elden Ring as someone who isn’t well-versed in Soulslike combat, I found combat to be slow and clunky and difficult to appreciate for a very large portion of Elden Ring. I got more accustomed to it after many hours of playtime, and it became more functional and more fun. Minimally, I suspect that combat will take a lot of getting used to for those who aren’t used to it, and for some, the combat in this game may well be completely unappealing. However, given how customizable the game’s combat is, it isn’t impossible for many to eventually find a style that suits them, though it is less clear whether newcomers will invest sufficient amounts of time and trial and error to do so. Different melee weapons play differently for example, and there is further customizability in whether you may choose to use them one-handed with a shield, or two-handed with no shield, or even dual-wield weapons. There is also incredible diversity in ranged combat—there are bows and arrows (I did not use these even once in the game, and hence I can’t comment on them), there are powerful sorceries that are cast using staffs and which rely primarily on the Intelligence attribute, and there are also incantations which are cast using seals and which rely primarily on the Faith attribute. I played a character which used offensive incantations such as fire and lightning spells, and I found these to be exhilarating to use. Elden Ring awards you a tremendous amount of freedom (and in turn also replayability) in changing the way combat works, which means there’s a higher chance that something out there might appeal to your style, though finding it may not prove to be easy, given the game’s steep learning curve. Once you do find a style that suits you, however, combat can be very satisfying in this game.

Part of what makes combat satisfying no doubt comes down to the immense satisfaction of surmounting boss fights, which is the defining signature of the genre that fans of such games would already be familiar with. The vast majority of bosses in Elden Ring are exceedingly well-designed, helped in large part by their diverse and consistently marvellous visual designs that range from the mystifying to the terrifying. Effective audio design also contributes very extensively to making these bosses feel real and immersive, with deafening roars or eerie voices helping to set the ambience of various boss fights. In practice, many of these bosses pose a tremendous challenge, but crucially, without feeling unfair—in this manner, Elden Ring straddles the line between frustration and determination with great finesse, and kept me wanting to try again and again in order to conquer the unconquerable. The adrenaline of engaging in bloodcurdling combat against a menacing and horrifying boss so terrifying that it should well have been impossible to defeat and the tremendous reward of eventually emerging victorious against such an enemy is truly an indescribable experience. However, there are occasional bosses which do begin to feel somewhat unfair, and these do tend to feel largely frustrating and are not particularly fun to fight against, which is a shame. Some boss designs do also get repeated—this largely did not stick out to me too much, though it was occasionally a dampener to be confronted with something that was merely a variation of something I had already fought in the game before.

I have two further substantive criticisms to level at Elden Ring before I conclude this review. The first is its narrative, or rather the lack thereof. I am well aware that fanatics of the genre will ferociously defend the minimalistic and obscure narrative style of these games, with mere hints to its lore in item descriptions and in vague dialogues. On a conceptual level, the lore of Elden Ring does seem highly fascinating and intriguing, and its many characters do have very interesting backgrounds. However, I’m really not a fan of this narrative style which leaves you barely understanding the game’s plot (at least without referring to some explanation video on YouTube), and it’s extremely difficult to feel any sort of emotional attachment to the game given its vague and opaque narrative and characters. The second criticism I have is that I somewhat disagree with the perspective that the game remains equally strong throughout. Though I was indeed extremely captivated by how constantly surprising, awe-striking, and rewarding the game was, this sense of surprise and reward began to dwindle in the second half of the game for me. That is to say, the novelty began to wore off, and the latter sections of the game weren’t quite as fresh and surprising to me as it was at first. The game eventually also felt a little bit repetitive and the exploration began to feel formulaic, which led me to feel as if I was simply going through the motions.

Will someone who does not like Dark Souls like Elden Ring?

For my final word, I’ll like to weigh in on this question that is likely to be on the minds of many who are curious about Elden Ring, given its overwhelmingly positive critical reception. I’ve seen many say that this is the most accessible and approachable Souls game ever made, and I’ve also seen many say that this game won’t change your mind if you didn’t like previous Souls games. Coming into Elden Ring as someone who does not like Souls games, I believe I can provide a somewhat more nuanced take. Elden Ring is indeed a much more approachable game than many other Souls games. Its open world means that anyone who is stuck on a boss can simply venture elsewhere and spend some time on open world exploration before returning to the boss, which in turn also has the advantage of allowing one to gain more experience, level up, upgrade their equipment, and also generally become better at playing the game. It also offers an extremely rich amount of game-play options that allows trial and error and experimentation, which means that there’s a much higher likelihood that someone can eventually discover a fighting style that suits them.

At the same time, none of this is necessarily easy to accomplish. The steep learning curve and the opaque nature of the game’s narrative means that many newcomers may give up before ever reaching that stage (I personally strongly recommend checking some guides as well as reddit posts giving advice, since these helped me tremendously). Elden Ring also very much remains a Souls game, which means it is still a very difficult game that can test your patience and that can prove to be frustrating. It can be very gruelling, both in terms of the difficulty of its combat and how harrowing some of the exploration can be as it takes you to dark and horrifying and foreboding places. There is also likely to be substantial time investment required to grind in order to gain enough runes (the in-game currency) to level up, or to obtain the necessary items for equipment upgrades. I definitely think Elden Ring has a higher chance of appealing to you even if you didn’t like previous Souls games, but I also think there’s no guarantee of this, since many aspects of Souls games that could be a turn-off are nevertheless present here, and the extent to which those things are repulsive to you could well be a determining factor. Do also consider your external circumstances if you’re curious about the game: if finances are tight or time is limited, it may not be a risk worth taking, at least until the game is on sale. If you’re willing or able to take the small risk, though, I do think there’s a tremendous amount in Elden Ring that is utterly excellent and worth experiencing for yourself.

Overall, though Elden Ring can be unwelcoming and can be extremely gruelling or even frustrating at times, it is also one of the most rewarding, and intriguing games I have played. While I do not think Elden Ring is quite as perfect as many others have claimed it to be, I nevertheless wholeheartedly applaud its myriad accomplishments, especially in its realization of an immersive, compelling, and fantastical open world. The fact that someone like myself who isn’t much a fan of Souls games and is also not a fan of open worlds in general has so much praise for it and even played it to completion should speak volumes about how stellar the game is. Elden Ring has completely decimated all previous standards for open worlds in videogames, and I sincerely believe that its majestic open world should serve as an exemplar for the entire gaming industry to take some lessons from.

 Gameplay score: A Storyline score: B Characters score: B+ Aesthetics score: A+ Enjoyment score: A

Overall Elden Ring score: 90/100

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3

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I haven’t actually cried about a video game announcement before. Never in my life. 

Xenoblade 3 has done it.

Every Xenoblade game has gotten me through many bad parts in my life. I knew that another game would be hype, but I didn’t think it’d get me so hard. The game already looks beautiful, and I can’t wait.

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xenoblade chronicles 3 - reveal trailer

releasing september 2022

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★ 【龙之天雪】 「 炎柱 」 ☆ ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ follow me on twitter

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus Mini-Review—One Step In the Right Direction

Platform played on: Nintendo Switch

Hours played: 31 hours; completed main story (except for the final story quest that requires completing the Pokedex) and over half of side quests

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is by far the freshest the series has been in over a decade. Though I think fondly of my childhood memories playing hundreds of hours of Pokémon games, the series’ stubborn insistence on sticking to the same formulaic approach with little inventiveness has grown increasingly stale for me, so much so that I’ve completely skipped out on playing the Diamond/Pearl remakes. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first Pokémon game in an extremely long time to rekindle my interest—though only partially. The shift in paradigm towards exploration-focused game-play that melds both turn-based combat as well as action-oriented combat is a brilliant move that really does elevate this game into something that feels novel and new, which is quite enjoyable. While not difficult by any means, the game is also slightly more challenging, which I appreciate. The narrative this time round is also, very surprisingly, much more interesting (by Pokémon standards at least), and there were some story beats that actually caught me somewhat off-guard, which is rare for the series. The subtle shift in tone towards a slightly darker narrative tone also makes this game feel a lot more refreshing compared to many recent mainline games. For the first time in over a decade, it feels as if Game Freak has finally begun walking towards the direction of elevating the Pokémon series into something more contemporary, more innovative, and more exhilarating.

While all this is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus remains heavily held back by a multitude of flaws. For one, although I very much enjoyed the feeling of an explorable open world which allowed me to encounter wild Pokémon in their natural habitats, more can be done to make the world even more seamless and even more alive—as it is now, the open world (which is split into multiple sections rather than a true open world) continues to feel somewhat static, like a still painting rather than a true open world that is alive and breathing. Additionally, while I appreciate the improved narrative by Pokémon standards, it still falls far below the standards of narratives in gaming more broadly. There were some nice surprises and twists in the later parts of the narrative, but the initial story structure felt a little repetitive, and the writing can be improved upon to enhance its emotional impact. Side quests in the game are also largely uninteresting and unrewarding, and feel more like chores rather than content that add meaningfully to the game. The game is also exceedingly unimpressive in the graphics department. While graphics do not necessarily make or break a game, better visuals would have gone a long way in making the experience more immersive and more pleasing to engage in. Finally, locking the true ending and final boss of the game behind collecting every single Pokémon in the game is, in my view, a very poor move that disrespects a player’s time, and this soured my impression of the game substantially. I do not enjoy collectathon aspects of games, and these should be left optional for players who do enjoy engaging in such activities.

There are the initial makings of great potential in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. If Game Freak continues in this direction and makes some much-needed refinements, there is much to be excited about in the future of Pokémon.

 Gameplay score: A- Storyline score: B+ Characters score: B+ Aesthetics score: B+ Enjoyment score: B+

Overall Pokémon Legends: Arceus score: 79/100

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RED DEAD REDEMPTION II  • scenery [69/?] —The Islands of Flat Iron Lake

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COWBOY BEBOP (1999) I Session 12 Jupiter Jazz (Part 1) I Dir. Shinichirō Watanabe + Yoshiyuki Takei

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Sayonara arigatou koe no kagiri Kanashimi yori motto daiji na koto Sariyuku senaka ni tsutaetakute Nukumori to itami ni maniau you ni

Homura - LiSA English version by AmaLee Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba, Mugen Train Arc

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Could barely read the words on my carriage ticket – non-stop to Midgar.

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Team Galactic stole my Ponyta