One Piece Odyssey
Like A Dragon 8 Infinite Wealth
FF7 Rebirth
I didn't want to update until I beat the 2nd game that I started this year. Unfortunately I beat the 3rd game first and both games took 105 hours.
Like A Dragon 8 Infinite Wealth (2nd JRPG)- An amazing sequel to be honest. It improved upon everything from the last game. Last game I had some complaints about pacing issues with experience or money, but none of those issues are in this game. Some of the quests were written by a genius, really hitting you in the feels or making you laugh, sometimes both in the same quest. The game is a little bit easy, so I experimented with my party and tried to make my main character do some of the weaker jobs, but all that effort to make him weaker only strengthens him in the endgame, so it feels nice. By the end I had some strong combos that would absolutely annihilate everything the story missions could offer. I enjoyed the new characters, though one criticism is that Tomizawa is often very stupid or rude, not sure why the writers would make the only American act like that... The other new playable characters are great additions. The music and worldbuilding are still similar to the last game, it's okay. Overall, I look upon this game quite favorably.
FF7 Rebirth (3rd JRPG)- This game also took 105 hours, but unfortunately much of that was frustration. FF7 Remake was near perfect, a sequel could have improved upon it and it would breach my top 10. But this game was annoying and thus doesn't come close. In the last FF review for FFXVI, I had issues with that game too. But those issues weren't annoying at all, rather it was missed potential. This game doesn't quite respect your time. Climb a million wood planks slowly like this is Uncharted. Climb a million ladders to get to the top of the tower slowly. Follow this NPC, but you can't run anymore because reasons. Your bird can't jump that tiny ledge, but it can jump this tiny ledge. Trash mobs? Nah they can hold you down for minutes if not outright kill you, if you don't perfect dodge. Bosses have infinite health sometimes, so your perfectly concocted combo goes to waste. Worst is when I was killing the last boss, got him to 0 health but apparently he was charging up his secret one shot move that hits everyone for 9999, meaning I had to restart the entire final boss. Explored some cool stuff? Cool you can't fast travel to it unless you do the associated minigames. OH my that is the first time I mentioned minigames. At least 30% of the game is minigames, they are fun enough to do, but I prefer my JRPG with a bit less. Overall the game is quite quality with a ton of music, sometimes interesting battle system, good story, setting, and characters, but all these annoying things really soured the experience.
