2. God of War Ragnarök (PS5)

Not as good as the previous one but a solid effort. 8.5/10.

3. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)

Great game with a bit of a rushed and confusing final act. 9/10.

With Rebirth coming out and my distain for the way FF is going (and having played the demo and wonder why we'd swapped random battles for chores) I decided to give Like A Dragon a go.

It was very fun, silly and stupid but had a very serious story behind the scenes which I did not expect, creates and odd tone but an enjoyable one. The amount mini games are unreal and in a sense a few too many, I only discovered the golf in the final chapter but outside of first plays of them or to get an item, I rarely did them. The weird grind of the business management one was sadly needed to progress at one point.

And like any good RPG, my skills with low level enemies were truely tested in a couple of boss fights. Final boss literally oneshot my sorry arse a few times.

Kasuga is a great character.

After LaD, decided to do something I'm more familiar with, but new and played Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Actually quite good. I enjoyed it more than BL3. Guns were kinda strange but as soon as i got my style it felt right the leveling and abilities were very straight forward, instead of 4 characters with 3 classes, it was just 6 classes basically, so leveling was simpler. I speced into a crit based build. Not sure if that was correct but it's what I did.

The comedy was better here but still has the flat americanisms I find in the series, you know, the oh so random stuff. Characters were good and acting was fu too, getting some big names here.

Of course I wasn't here for a long time, just a fun time so ran past a lot of stuff... you know, BL3 speed run style, completed it in 19 hours, this includes leveling to 40 for a trophy. Still had fun, recommended.

Update as of April 3rd 2024

Beaten so far in 2024
-Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (PC) - Jan 2024
-Final Fantasy VI (PC) - Jan 2024
-Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (NS) - Feb 2024
-Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (PS4) - Feb 2024
-Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS) - Mar 2024
-Borderlands GOTY Enhanced (PC) - Apr 2024

Beaten in Hours
-Borderlands GOTY Enhanced (PC) - 62 hours
-Final Fantasy VI (PC) - 56 hours
-Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix (PS4) - 43 hours
-Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (PC) - 39 hours
-Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS) - 33 hours
-Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (NS) - 26 hours

Beaten score wise
-Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix (PS4) - 99 out of 100
-Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS) - 98 out of 100
-Final Fantasy VI (PC) - 97 out of 100
-Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (NS) - 96 out of 100
-Borderlands GOTY Enhanced (PC) - 89 out of 100
-Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (PC) - 85 out of 100

Total number of Hours Platform wise
PC: 157 hours
NS: 59 hours
PS4: 43 hours


Grand Total: 259 hours

Currently Playing

Planning to Play next (in no particular order and may change)
-Ratchet and Clank (PS4)
-Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Freedom Cry (PC)
-Gears of War 2 (X360)
-Tekken 2 (PS4)
-Dragon Quest I (NS)
-Kirby's Dream Course (NSO)
-River City Girls (PC)
-Donkey Kong Country 2 (GBA)
-Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door (NS) - pre-ordered
-Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PS5)

Finished Games:

1. Odin Sphere Leifthasir (PS4) My Rating: 8.5 / 10
   • I'd had this game waiting on my back log for ages, and I finally decided to give it a go. Turns out that Odin's Sphere is a great game. The gameplay is fun, and thanks to the five different playable characters, nicely varied as well. The music is great, and the visuals are gorgeous. The story is overall great, but because of the way the game tells it, focusing on one character at a time even though all of their stories take place at the same time, it means that you only get the full picture of what is going on after finishing all five characters stories. As a result, especially with the first few characters, you can end up feeling a bit lost at times. Still, this was a great way to start the year off.
2. Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS5) My Rating: 9.0 / 10
   
   • Just decided to replay the Remake in preparation for Rebirth. Also played through the Yuffie DLC for the first. Still love the game, the only notable issue I have is the Sephiroth fight at the end. I think they should've saved it for later. Otherwise the game is excellent, even better than I previously thought.
3. Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (PS5) My Rating: 8.5 / 10
   • I've always been a big fan of the Trine games, in particular when playing them in co-op, and Trine 5 might be the best one yet. Solid, highly enjoyable puzzle platformers with a charming world and characters. Best played with three people, but even with two or just on your own these are always fun games.
4. A Plague Tale: Requiem (PS5) My Rating: 9.0 / 10
   • A sequel to one of my favourite games of the previous generation, and quite possibly an improvement over it as well. I love this particular setting Asobo Studio has created, and the story and characters are great too, carried in this game by an fantastic voice performance by Charlotte McBurney as Amicia. If I had played this game back in 2022 when it was release I would have probably voted for her as the best performance of the year in the year-end awards. I loved the character's progression over the course of the game, slowly becoming more and more accustomed to and accepting of the idea of killing other people, and simply being mentally torn apart bit by bit by the horrible situation they've been forced into and from which there doesn't seem to be any escape. I'm not entirely sure yet, but this might be the first game I've played this year that'll make it into my top 50 once that event rolls around at the end of the year.
5. Star Ocean: First Departure R (PS4) My Rating: 7.5 / 10
   • A solid old-school JRPG that effectively feels like a proof of concept for other, better games down the line. This was Tri-Ace's first game, and this definitely set up a template the later games in the series would follow and improve upon. This was an overall fun game, but it does feel like a first attempt at doing something. Still good, but every element found here would be greatly polished in games to come.
6. Asterigos: Curse of the Stars (PS5) My Rating: 8 / 10
   • I ended up liking this game much more than I initially expected. An action RPG that takes some clear inspiration from Dark Souls, but far easier and lighter a game (a soulslite?). The limits of the game's budget are unquestionably a factor here, as just about every aspect of the game could have used one more pass of polish before release, the gameplay could use a bit more snap and better damage feedback, and the writing/translation needed one more round of edits to fix the various small mistakes and just make the game less verbose. I still liked it a lot, and it's one of those games that feels more than the sum of its parts. My initial impression upon starting it weren't great, but the longer I played the more I found myself enjoying my time with Asterigos.
7. Potionomics (PC) My Rating: 8 /10
   • I was ready to call this game one of my favourites of the last several years, all the way up until the end of the story, when I realized that instead of letting me continue playing in a free-play mode once the main storyline concluided, the game just ended. That meant that I basically missed at least a third of the game's content because I didn't know I had to do every extra piece of content on a very tight time limit while also making sure I met all the story requirements. I had purposefully left a lot of the extra stuff undone because I thought I could do all of it once the story was done, but that proved to be a poor decision on my part. I still think Potionomics is a great game, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth at the end. It could have been an all-time great title, now it falls disappointingly short of that due to a really odd decision to now let the player continue playing beyond the main storylines conclusion. For what is effectively a relationship/store management sim that's just strange.
8. The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure (PS4) My Rating: 9 / 10
   • The better of the two Crossbell games in the series, Trails to Azure brings things particular story arc to a very satisfying conclusion. Overall, I'd say the Trails in the Sky and Cold Steel sub-series are a little better, but the difference isn't huge. It also marks the 9th game in the series I've now finished.

Currently Playing:

• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)

In queue:

• God of War: Ragnarök
• Persona 5
• Demon's Souls
• Steelrising
• Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age
• Tales of Arise
• Tales of Vesperia
• Steelrising

Lies of P (PC)
A brilliant soulslike that nails the formula in almost everything. 9.5/10

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.

Spiderman 2 and Yakuza Infinite Wealth, busy with FFVII rebirth

Did you not know? This was their vision 25 years ago when they made FF7 and wanted to remake it to do it justice. Add needless busywork and minigames.

I played the demo and actually wanted fights, random battles, over the utter crap of hoovering up mako.

Sometimes after cute games or epic story driven RPGs (according to the above 5 in a row, 2 were ME games). You need a mindless shooter, story doesn't really matter and you just want fun. Tiny Tina was that I guess but for the 11 hours I played of Immortals of Avenueinum, I guess that will do.

This game is like one of the most mediocre games ever, I had hopes when I first saw it advertised years ago but in the end it was in all essence as generic FPS and some first person platforming and some puzzles. I played on the second to highest difficulty and maybe died like twice and it wasn't even to bosses, it's not knowing what I was supposed to do or trying to skip bits and getting stuck so enemies swamped me (this is outside of some optional boss arenas which I will not be doing as they oneshot me, even on easy in end game, screw that crap). The gameplay is decent if not generic. Standard area open world thing with challenges and puzzles, "leveling" action RPG standard really.

The story for the most part is just poor and the writing sometimes just cringe worthy, these were meant to be adults in a war but certainly didn't seem like it. Character spoke and talked, even serious ones, like they were on some young adult action tv series literally using modern 21st century language in a fantasy world. I had odd things in it like it was making cool references but it just didn't make sense (like horses went extinct at some point and there's a little joke made about it).... joke. Yeah. Avengers writing. I blame Joss Wheden. There are loads of characters that are talked to, your character knows them, then you never see or speak to again really (even trophies for talking to them, which no one who played the game has done).

There was an really annoying plot point for me too and it kept being in the back of my mind the entire time the main character spoke to another.

The game had promise and I'm honestly not sure what they could have done to make it better. It's generic.