Andrew Watson

I've never played a FromSoft game before. Not a single one. Maybe it's because of that fact that I like this game as much as I do. I say that because a majority of the negative reviews I see are either fans of the older Armored Core games who don't like some of the changes or newer FromSoft fans who don't like that this isn't a Souls-like game. This can be a hard, unforgiving, but fair game that forces you to engage in every aspect of nearly every mechanic in this game, which is both good and bad. Good in the sense that, in your first playthrough, you essentially need to learn most of the mechanics in order to not pull your hair out. Bad in the sense your essentially forced to use certain mechanics that you may not like (again, only in your first playthrough). That said, this is a game I love. I have no major complaints about this game. My only real complaint is that some builds are actively better than others. Not sure if it's because I personally like lightweight nimble builds, but they seem to be the only viable option for an easy playthrough, at least for me. To address some of the negative reviews I've seen, a few things you need to know if you've played the Souls games or Elden Ring. There is NO invincibility frames for dodging. That seems to throw some Souls players off a bit. But you honestly don't need invincibility when you can jump and move around so quickly. Also, you can make the game absurdly easy with dual shotguns (at least until they patch it, assuming they do). Trust me, don't use them if you like a challenge. You can't go back once you've used them lol.

The game is basically DLC for Spiderman PS4. That's both a good and bad thing. Good in that it's more of what made the PS4 game so great. Great combat, compelling story, amazing visuals, fantastic performance. Bad in that it shouldn't be full price. $60 / $70 for a game that is maybe 1/4th of what the original PS4 game was is simply greedy. Yes, the free PS5 upgrade is super nice and well worth it, but paying full price for a game you can complete in a single sitting (when the previous game could take a few days to beat at least) is just greedy. If I had to do this all over again, I'd buy the game used or when it's on sale. Full price isn't worth it for the content you get. Great game, but overpriced at full MSRP.

This game, while still very fun, feels like a step backwards in writing when compared to 3 Houses. The good: - The combat is great. If you like tactical RPGs, you will likely enjoy this game. The addition of the emblem rings is a nice twist to the gameplay. If anything will get me to reply this game, it's the gameplay. - From a technical standpoint, the game is beautiful. The graphics are great, animations smooth, loading times not bad, music is great. Other than a few camera issues when transitioning between the above view to combat view (this seems to have been fixed in a patch recently), I've noticed no technical issues with the game. It's impressive what these developers can do on such old (and very outdated) hardware. - Character design is solid and shows that each nation in the game has its own style, which helps the world building. While likely not to everyone taste, are an improvement over the mostly boring colors and uniformity of 3H. - English voice acting is great and I've heard the Japanese voice acting is also great. The English dialogue is written pretty poorly most of the time, but the voice actors deliver the lines very well. - The game keeps you in the action with not a ton of down time between battles. While some may not like the loss of the more social sim aspects of 3H, I don't miss it too much. The bad: - The only major con I have is the writing. My god, the writing... It's not great. Dialogue is hit or miss, but usually it's a miss. While the voice actors deliver the lines very well, it doesn't mean the lines are written well. Most characters are also pretty two dimensional. Outside of maybe 4 characters, the rest of the roster has one quark that defines them and that it. - Then there's the story. It's pretty bare bones cookie cutter hero's journey stuff. The good guys are good because their good and the bad guys are bad because they're bad. No real motivation for the characters other than this, outside of literally 2 exceptions, and those exceptions don't really drive the plot at all. The story is fairly predictable and spoils the few late game twists within the first few hours of the game. The story isn't bad, but it's a step backwards in the series. If you're looking for complex characters or stories, then look elsewhere. - No branching story. The previous game had 4 main stories, each of which was (mostly) very different from the others . That had me playing over and over again. Even if this game's story was solid (which, again, it isn't), I don't think I'd play through the story a second time (I'd just skip all cutscenes and get right to the battles). - Characters don't have any real connections to other characters in the game. Outside of support conversations, no one seems to care about anyone else. This is the only part of the social sim aspects of 3H that I miss. In that game, it felt like everyone got along or actually interacted with each other outside of support conversations (characters talked about people from other houses, their friends, etc.). In this game, characters only ever seems to praise you or talk about the scenery, outside of a few very specific situations. This game boiled the connections away to the point that there feels like there's nothing holding your crew together other than following you. Despite my long list of cons, the game is a blast to play. It's just that the story and writing bring it down from "fantastic" to "alright" for me. If you're mostly interested in a deep story or well written characters, you won't find much of that here. But if you care most about the gameplay and like these types of games, this is a good game for you.

I'm not a hardcore Zelda fan, but this game is easily one of my favorite games of all time already. Everything about this game, with the exception of one thing, is perfect or near perfect. I could repeat what almost every good review has said about this game, but instead I'm going be negative and complain about two things, the only two things I dislike about this game. The combat is very, VERY basic. Except for the arrow crafting stuff, it's exactly the same as Breath of the Wild. It isn't really "bad", but it's very basic and relatively easy. The bigger issue, the bigger issue I have, is the console it's on. The Switch is a good console because of the games on it. It's old, weak, outdated hardware holds this game (and many others) back from true perfection. 30fps is fine, don't get me wrong. However, it's not a perfectly stable 30fps. Most of the time it's fine, but there are times when it drops a bit. Nintendo used some wizardry to make this game run as as good as it does on the Switch, but the Switch is clearly holding this game back hard. Other than those two issues I have, everything else is flawless. The new abilities are awesome, the freedom you're given to do basically whatever you want is insane, and the story is good.

This game is incredible. One of my favorite games of all time at this point. The good: - From a technical standpoint, this game is amazing. Animations are smooth, graphics are incredible, sound design is great. While this game doesn't quite reach the heights of Horizon or Ratchet and Clank (this game feels more like a port on PS5 rather than a game made for the system from the start), it's still looks great and is definitely an improvement over the previous game. - The story is top tier. Without getting into spoilers, every character is believable (when it comes to their motivations and family dynamics), which is not something I could say about the Greek God of War games. What's most impressive to me is how the writers took this mythos and made a believable and relatable story about a father and son. - Gameplay is great. Not a ton of innovation compared to the previous game, but the combat has been refined to near perfection. The new features in this game are a welcome addition as well. - Enemy diversity is increased immensely. You won't be fighting the same 5 guys throughout the playthrough. The bad: - There's one section of this game that serves little purpose other than a massive exposition dump. That section of the game, while including very important information to the story and sets a character on a new path, is fairly weak in my opinion. It's just "dump all the info we can't fit elsewhere in this section". There isn't even much combat or puzzle solving during this section (its very much a walking simulator for the most part), and the combat that there is makes little sense from a lore perspective (why is there this certain enemy type in this place that shouldnt have that enemy type?). That's my only negative, and it's such a small part of the game that I can't knock my rating down. I'm excited to see where they take the series moving forward.

An easy must-have for everyone with a PS5. Visuals are stunning and still aren't really surpassed almost two years after release. Gameplay is solid and plays pretty similarly to previous games (albeit with some incremental improvements). There are no loading screens. Literally, not one loading screen. From a technical standpoint, this game is the gold standard of what PS5 games should be able to do. There isn't much negative to say about the game other than it's length. It's a somewhat short game for the price, but is such an amazing experience that the price is justified in other aspects. The only other complaint I have is how the dialogue is often writen for kids. Not in the Disney/Pixar kind of way (the good way), but more the Illumination kind of way, if that makes sense. Occasionally, this game moments of writing that are fantastic! The backstory of Rivet is a great example of this. But more often than that it seems like more kiddy dialogue that boarders on talking down to the audience. At least, in my opinion. Maybe that's just me. But it's far better than the 2016 remake of the first game. That said, a minor complaint like that, which doesn't detract from the game at all, is a small bump in what is otherwise a near perfect game.

The game is not finished. It isn't ready to see the light of day. Why they pushed this unfinished game out, I can only speculate. But before I start on an essay about how this game is a shell of an entertainment product, let's get some positives out of the way. The game does have some decent new systems in place that can make it feel like a step in the right direction for the series. Having battles take place in the over world is something every Switch Pokemon game should have. It also has some pretty decent (albeit barebones) character customization. But that's about where the good ends for me. Back to the negatives. This game is not finished. Why it takes Gamefreak years to make what some developers can fart out in a fraction of the time, I simply will never know. Why they released a buggy, messy, technically poor game when they could tap Monolith Soft and other big boi Nintendo developers who know how to make a game with a big scale preform well on the Switch is beyond me. The game runs like trash, looks like trash, and feels like trash. Also, why is there STILL no voice acting? Xenoblade, a game with a fraction of the audience, has full voice acting over 120 hours of game. Why can't the BIGGEST FRANCHISE on the planet gets voice acting? Pokemon should be in the hands of a developer who is either more talented or you need to let the game bake in the oven a bit longer. I know Gamefreak can make a good pokemon game, but this is just another ball dropped. This is a bad place for the franchise to be, kept alive by those who don't care about quality. This game should be magnificen. It's the biggest franchise on the planet, but it feels like a game that was put together on a shoestring budget. Nintendo and the Pokemon Company need to rethink their strategy. It's only so long before the diehard fans get sick of this too. I use to be a diehard fan. But now this is likely to be the last Pokemon game I purchase. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me over 5 times, well that's on me.

Easily the best Xenoblade game so far and personal contender for Game of the Year. The story is solid, voice acting is great, and action good (if you like the Xenoblade combat style). Gameplay wise, I have no complaints. It's a very, very good game, from that perspective. Even my negative comments below aren't enough to lower my rating to less than 5 stars. However, I have one major complaint. It's the system it's on. The Switch is fantastic, don't get me wrong. Some of my favorite games ever are Switch exclusives. However, I've never seen a game more held back, graphically, than this game. The developers clearly put a lot of time and effort making this game look amazing, but the Switch's hardware holds this game back. The game is not pretty, but that's ONLY because the Switch can't handle the game. The game constantly shows you what is clearly beautiful scenery that took time and talent to craft, only to have it look like something that went through a cheese grater (the resolution drops in these locations). Again, this is clearly not the fault of the developers, but a limitation of the console's hardware. This game shouldn't have been released on the Switch. It should have been released on Nintendo's next gen console, assuming it's actually going to be powerful enough to handle a game like this. If you can get past the limitations the hardware puts on this game, it's easily one of the best games this year. If you don't like playing in what feels like less than 480p resultion, you're going to have a bad time, even if the story and gameplay is great.