What Games Are You Playing?

[Lucky_Deity]

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (PSP via PS5)

Finally another R&C game on modern consoles. This is the second title in the series I've beaten now (the first being R&C 2016).

Though I've jumped in with the 5th title in the series with Size Matters it was easy enough to jump into with simple knowledge of the series. The game itself was a decent time though. It feels and plays like a R&C game, just smaller and simpler in scale.

There are two gripes I have with the game though, first off is that the camera is quite zoomed in which can make gameplay a bit awkward at times but considering it's a PSP game I can forgive it and I did get used to it in the end. The second thing though is that enemies are weapon sponges and deal heavy damage as well, even simple enemies in the late game. Fortunately to circumvent this the PSP emulator Sony are using has a rewind feature which I made use of when I found it reasonable too.

Plot wise it's very simple, nothing to write home about but the characters are themselves so they're enjoyable to watch though Qwark definitely felt forced into the plot and honestly didn't really add much at all but he's fun to watch all the same.

There were a number of mini-games as well which include hoverboard races, an on-rails shooter, a robot derby demolition, Lemmings-like puzzles and a simple sports game where you have to score the most goals.

These were a mixed bunch. The hoverboard races don't control great but as I mentioned with the rewind feature, it makes them easier. The on-rails shooter is similar to Star Fox so if you like that then this is fine. The robot derby and puzzles I found fairly fun and the sports game was fine but felt dragged out with how many there were.

I was doing all the mini-games as I came across them to get the extra bolts and rewards but the final set of Clank mini-games (derby, puzzle and sports) I decided not to do as there were quite a lot and I was nearing the end game, slowing down the pace. I feel I got enough experience from the first round of Clank's mini-games earlier on.

Overall this was a decent time, definitely not the strongest title and wouldn't miss much skipping out on this one, especially if you have access to other games in the series but at the same time it's only a 4 - 5 hour game so isn't a big commitment and if you enjoy the series, I'd say it's worth a shot.

As a side note, though I said at the beginning of this that this was only the second R&C I've beaten I have played a number of other titles in the series over the years, just haven't sitten down properly and beaten them which is why I'm comparing Size Matters overall.

 

[HWR]

I’m now playing God of War (2018), a very different take on the series but I’m enjoying this new approach for the most part so far.

 

[DragoStark]

I finished the Muv-Luv trilogy...



I haven't played a classic VN like these for decades. Took me way back to my late teenage years and the nostalgia was a great hit. I actually really enjoyed Extra and Unlimited, despite the general reviews that they're the weakest entries. I found Alternative to drag a bit too much. I'm not sure whether it's because I played them one after another so the amount of reading was pretty crazy (not to mention I completed every route) or whether it's because it was significantly longer than the first two. Probably a mix of both. Also I started to get a bit frustrated with Alternative's plot.

Spoiler

I understand it's supposed to show that humanity is literally on it's knees but at some point I got tired of a half hour explanation of the plan for something to go wrong almost immeditely because the BETA always had a counter of some kind and it was very much like right ok, who's dying/sacrificing themselves this time round. It got to the point where I was expecting the main girls to die.

At that point it was losing it's impact and I very much just wanted it to conclude already lol.
CHOMP was impactful though. I had heard about it but didn't know context or when it happens so it still got me.

Anyway, great experience. I can see why it's highly rated. Not as good as Fate Stay/Night though. That VN will live with me forever. Although having all the routes from Extra and Unlimited technically canon was genius. Made playing through all the routes in both Extra and Unlimited worth it. Don't skip those games.

I got the bundle from humble so I have all the side/alternative stories too. I'll probably wait a little before I get to those though. I've done enough reading for a year

 

[HWR]

I’m now playing God of War (2018), a very different take on the series but I’m enjoying this new approach for the most part so far.

God of War (2018) turned out to be a very good experience overall, despite the dodge mechanic being a bit naff. Moved onto God of War: Ragnarok this weekend too.

 

[Gemsy-chan]

Completed a 1st run through of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak

probably one of my fave trails games. Good story and cast of characters. Like the combat system as well.

 

[Lordhippos]

Found the thought of starting the Trails series a bit daunting given how many games there are in the series to date, which is one reason I've never really sat down to play any of them. Thoughts on starting with the more recent ones?

God of War (2018) turned out to be a very good experience overall, despite the dodge mechanic being a bit naff. Moved onto God of War: Ragnarok this weekend too.

Yep it's good, the new one carries on in the same vein as well.

The banter between the characters is great and the game generally feels very cinematic as well.

 

[Gemsy-chan]

Found the thought of starting the Trails series a bit daunting given how many games there are in the series to date, which is one reason I've never really sat down to play any of them. Thoughts on starting with the more recent ones?

With the way the games are you would ideally start with the 1st lot of games (Trails in the Sky) because as you play future games there are references and characters you would only understand if you've played in order, but I think it's just on steam and I think released on psp back in the day (there are mutterings of a remake). I've not played Trails in the Sky as I don't play on Steam or have a psp.

If you have to start somewhere then I'd play Trails from Zero or Trails of Cold Steel. I got into the Trail series from playing Trails of Cold Steel first.

 

[Lordhippos]

Useful thanks @Gemsy-chan I'll definitely consider it!

I tried out the demo for Visions of Mana (out on PS5 and Steam) but must say I am not blown away by it, and won't be buying on release.

Granblue Fantasy Relink blows this game out of the water imo.

 

[Gemsy-chan]

@Lordhippos yeah I felt the same about the demo. Shame as I was looking forward to it.

 

[Lordhippos]

Yeah same, at least there was a demo to try though, I do appreciate that so I can be sure if I want to buy or not!

 

[NormanicGrav]

I took a break from gaming in May and started again for June! The backlog for the PlayStation side hasn't grown that much but the Nintendo backlog is expanding (which is fine since the game length isn't as crazy as the others).

My write-up wasn't ready in time for end of June so I held off until the end of July to include a few more games that I recently finished.

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#10 - Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (PlayStation 5)
Acquired: June 2022

Spoiler: My thoughts on Chaos

When Stranger of Paradise was first announced, all people talked about was how they wanted to kill Chaos. Personally what they showed didn't grab my attention and so I moved on, but then Square Enix released a demo closer to release that allowed people to carry content over to the main game which I can't recall if this was a thing prior or was one of the first, so I gave it a shot and immediately got hooked on what they were going for.

This is a Nioh-lite type of game by developer Team Ninja, the same folks behind Nioh, however it does strip a lot of the technical aspects that you would find in that game as well as other Souls titles. Dying as an example doesn't have consequence so you are able to level up your builds without ease, and you can bail from areas if needed without losing anything. It is pretty much the definition of an entry level game for this type of genre that does carry your hand around a lot. There is still a challenge to the combat especially with the boss fights but in most cases you will be able to breeze through them without issue. That said you can adjust the difficulty between Story, Action and harder modes. I went for Action which is pretty much the Normal difficulty level of the game.

Despite the strip down aspect of that, I still found Stranger of Paradise to be a really entertaining experience. The gameplay does have its interesting quirks like how you can switch between different classes with ease during combat and especially in situations where you need to adjust your setup because your boss fight or opponent isn't going to work with your current build. There isn't much enemy variety though outside of the boss fights.

Every enemy drops items and gear to keep you going, and this is a big deal because difficulty management is based on the level of your gear, as your characters do not have a level system of their own. In return, your classes have different abilities and skills that you can unlock to improve its stats. The downside with picking up items is that you are capped to holding up to 600 items altogether, and the only way to remove them from your selection is during the in-between areas and dismantling them. I did this as it was the only option and it can take a while especially when you have a lot, because they will fill it fairly fast when you go through like a few missions (whether its a story mission or a sub-mission).

I have used most of the classes throughout my playthrough and a lot of them work really well. The magic abilities in the Sage class were great and during the final areas I used that as well as the Breaker class which has my favourite ability, the Zantetsuken, which can deal a lot of damage against multiple enemies in front of you which is great for specific situations. I also really enjoy Jack, our main lead, just grabbing the enemies and insta-killing them into red crystals. My build by the end of the playthrough included a Level 124 weapon with clothing ranging from Levels 101-118.

In terms of the story and characters, when you start the game it is bizarre and weird as you would expect. Yet somehow, as you progress through the story, it starts to make more sense about why Jack's character is the way it is and why the characters feel out of place in the world. Not going to go into spoilers but the direction was rather surprising and does make me want to play the first Final Fantasy.

I have not decided to get the DLC expansions because I have read they were in the same situation as Nioh where you need to play the game in higher difficulties to get the best gear before going into the content and I'm not spending extra amount of hours just for that. In terms of playtime, I spent 21 hours 49 minutes to finish the main story and many of the sub-missions. I recommend going through the sub-missions before jumping into the story missions because you want to have the best gear as possible.

Overall Stranger of Paradise was a surprisingly entertaining experience and while there's many areas of the gameplay that is stripped down from the Nioh and Souls genre, I do think the game is still a fun time and performance wise I have no issue with the frame rate and resolution. The characters are weird but welcoming and the story direction was interesting. If you find the game on sale I recommend giving it a shot. The Chaos memes were worth it.

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#11 - The Hong Kong Massacre (PlayStation 4)
Acquired: June 2023

Spoiler: My thoughts on The Hong Kong Massacre

So last year I bought a few indie digital games that have had my interest for a while and were on sale, and one of them was The Hong Kong Massacre (the other was Ruiner). This game was apparently the inspiration for that top-down scene in John Wick Chapter 4 according to the director, which is funny considering this style and genre I recall was popularized by the Hotline Miami games which I have played and enjoyed a lot.

The Hong Kong Massacre is about taking down a group of guys in an area in one take, no deaths and its one hit kills for everyone. This adds a lot of challenge to the mix because you want to be precise and have the right weapons and ammo for the situation. You can pickup weapons that enemies drop in each level and you can upgrade your starting weapon before proceeding. This ranges from extra bullets, better fire rate and faster movement if needed. The game's structure has about five days with each one covering six levels and a boss for each. The game gets challenging each time and the final day in particular does have some that have taken me a long time to sort out.

Now before we proceed, I do want to highlight that this game is responsible for making me feel ill i.e. motion sick, and its because of how fast-paced the game is in terms of dying and resetting the level progress and the repetitiveness of the game's structure in terms of the direction you need to take to beat each level. With Hotline Miami, that game has the same style (top down approach, one hit kills, defeating all enemies in an area) but it felt slower paced and has different ways to approach enemies (also the music was brilliant) whereas with The Hong Kong Massacre its all about beating the levels as soon as you can and it wants to go for the Hong Kong action style of pace where its fast with slow motion as an option if needed, but the game rewards you for not using that ability so I avoided it altogether outside of boss fights.

View attachment The Hong Kong Massacre - gameplay - optimised.mp4

Despite me feeling sick, I do think the gameplay itself is still fun and I found the challenge to be interesting, because the AI changes positions in every retry you have in each level. They don't stay in the exact same spot so for example they could be a few steps away from their regular spot or on the other side of the room which adds to the chaos of the combat. This can also cause issues where you end up dying more which is also a pain. During combat, in addition to the slow motion ability you can also dive which will make you immune from damage for a short process which is handy during taking out multiple enemies in an area. The AI is ruthless and will immediately aim at you correctly in most cases which is frustrating but the game rewards you for taking them out in a single take.

In terms of performance, the frame rate is decent, the cutscenes are terrible with low resolution quality and there have been many instances where I have somehow managed to dive on top of the rooms in many areas which is weird. The game was made with Unity so I wonder if this was an issue with compatibility issues porting the game over to PlayStation 4 but I have heard the Nintendo Switch version had similar issues.

The game took me about 4-5 hours worth of playtime and I did manage to finish the game's story in a single day, at the cost of my health that is, but I would say if you want to check the game out you're best going for the PC version and tweak the settings if you can to avoid any motion sick if you have that.

---

#12 - RUINER (PlayStation 4)
Acquired: June 2023

Spoiler: My thoughts on RUINER

After recovering from my time playing The Hong Kong Massacre, I immediately started RUINER which was the next game that I wanted to play in the backlog as the two were similar in gameplay.

RUINER has been on my to-play list for many years due to its cyberpunk aesthetic and soundtrack, which includes a classic song from Susumu Hirasawa. The game is a semi-top down twin stick shoot em up where you go from room to room or area to area killing all of the enemies getting in your way to reach the end of the zone, sometimes with a boss fight getting in the way.

My hype was anticipated but it paid off as I had a great time playing through this indie game by Reikon Games and Devolver Digital. Now I will add that I started this game after they released a patch that modified a lot of the gameplay balance including difficulty, so my experience was smooth compared to those who played the game at launch and were slapped around constantly.

RUINER has multiple chapters and the story was pretty interesting. The hacker that guides you has a few fun anime style reactions when you finish a fight against enemies and the direction of the story I liked a lot. The music still slaps throughout and works well, though I did wish it had a few more artists like Carpenter Brut, HEALTH, Perbutator and SIERRA that I reckon would contribute well to the soundtrack.

View attachment RUINER - gameplay - optimised.mp4

Throughout the game you can pickup many different weapons which will have a limited amount of ammo but there's plenty of extra weapons available that you can use to keep the pace going. Melee weapons are also available and you can use critical hits against enemies so they are killed immediately. Also worth mentioning that you can level up your abilities for things like shield, extra health, easy dodging by mini teleporting around, and more. You won't be able to unlock every ability slot in a single playthrough but the game does support New Game+ which is good for those who want more.

There's also a few other game modes available but my main focus was the story campaign. Compared to The Hong Kong Massacre, the game performance for the PS4 version was smooth with a stable frame rate and great visual quality.

Overall, the game's story was about 3-4 hours of playtime and I recommend it. Plays well on consoles so feel free to pick and choose whether to go for PS4 or PC with this one.

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#13 - One Piece: Unlimited World Red (PlayStation 4)
Acquired: January 2022

Spoiler: My thoughts on One Piece: Unlimited World Red

So late last year I spent a few months re-reading the One Piece manga and enjoyed the experience. Eventually after that I started playing through the One Piece games that I had bought for the PlayStation 4, notably One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 and One Piece: Burning Blood. Unfortunately I was distracted by other things and I didn't play any more since.

Now I finally took the chance to play the next one in the backlog which is One Piece: Unlimited World Red, an original story that I recall continues the Unlimited series that Bandai Namco have released on Nintendo platforms (like the DS & Wii). This game was eventually released on the PlayStation 3 and then remastered for PlayStation 4. The latter is the version that I have.

My experience with this game is of two things - one is that there's a lot of content that you can take from this game to spend a lot of hours on which is great and the story itself is honestly pretty decent for an original storyline. The other is the combat is rather sluggish. I like aspects of the combat, for example you are rewarded for doing a specific combo to achieve a bit of damage but the damage you take against the enemies feels underwhelming compared to Pirate Warriors or Burning Blood where it does feel like you are doing damage to them during the gameplay.

That said, you can control different characters from the Straw Hat crew which is pretty cool and I played through most of them, namely sticking with Luffy, Zoro and Robin. Each character has different styles of combat and there are special unlocks unique to each character throughout each area you explore. The areas are your Straw Hat crew revisiting a lot of the previous storylines from One Piece which is fine but does feel disappointing as it means there's not much originality out of the game.

Another gameplay aspect I want to mention is that you can add words to characters to build their strength which is pretty neat, like temporary damage and health to the team and more, which adds more variety and you can earn more by exploring the areas back and forth. Visually the game looks good though the cutscenes felt incomplete especially when characters are speaking.

One last bit to mention is the village hub area as you can build the shops to help with your journey, basically taking the city-building genre and applying it to the game. I won't lie, this actually felt nostalgic to me and reminded me a lot of a niche little game called Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King on WiiWare. Random I know.

There are other modes available but I mainly wanted to focus on the main story, and I will say this game is a perfect example of the trope where focusing solely on the story punishes you with a high difficulty curve so you need to spend time doing side quests to build your team before progressing which can take hours. I spent 8 hours 15 mins playtime finishing the story and doing some side content to get to the end.

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#14 - One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (PlayStation 4)
Acquired: May 2024

Spoiler: My thoughts on One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows

Out of nowhere I immediately decided to play the One Punch Man fighting game that I recently picked up, and I expected a straight up simple fighter that is barebones. What I ended up getting is a game that has a lot more effort put into it than I anticipated. Now for the record I have seen people compare this game to other fighters like Naruto Shippuden's Ultimate Ninja Storm series but I haven't played those yet (I do own them), but I would say this game more akin to JUMP FORCE in its structure.

For starters you can create your own character and build up their stats including different power moves that you can switch back and forth on in-between each fighting stage, and customise the costumes including your own little room which is something. Similar to Attack on Titan 2, the game puts you in the perspective of a non-canon character that ends up interacting with the main cast of characters throughout the events of the first season. There is voiced dialogue and this is the first time I've heard the voices properly in English, which is the same dub cast from the anime, and honestly I liked it. I felt each character's dub voice worked well, though Tatsumaki's voice is different to what I had imagined but nothing wrong with that.

The fighting combat is pretty fun where you can use different attack moves and special moves to defeat your opponent. You have a bar on the top-left corner that builds up which allows you to use special moves once you reach a specific amount depending on what ability you have equipped. When you reach 6 filled bars, you can go into a special move where if you have enough bars and have the ultimate move equipped you can use that super move against the opponent which will pretty much knock them out. I only ever used this at the last second since in a majority of the fights you will have finished the battle before that point in all honestly.

Along the way, the cast of characters you interact with will also be available in side quests where you build their relationships and unlock their move set which allows for more customisation. Some of the side quests will ask for you to be a specific build beforehand. These builds are different types of move sets from Power move, to Weapon move, Psychic move and a Monster type move. Each build have their own ranks where it's maximum is Level 5, which offers more ability slots. Your main character has its own ranking and levelling up. You can reach as high as Level 99 with each level allowing you points to build up your strength, special moves, speed and more. There's also the ranking from the hero association which starts with Rank C and as you complete special missions you can raise it up to Rank S.

Saitama also makes an appearance and in a very smart way. Because he's so overpowered, he will randomly appear into the battle and if you're lucky you can one-shot your opponent and effectively end the match right there. In fact all of the other heroes do appear in the fight which is pretty fun, so if you want Fubuki to show up she can but it's randomised. But on the plus side, when they do appear they stick around and you can play as them throughout the remainder of the fight.

The only issue that I have with this game is the block move doesn't really work well especially when you're pushed to the ground and want to get back up which can also take ages. It's annoying mainly when you're up against a very strong opponent but it just feels really tiresome and annoying when it keeps happening. Sometimes you just have to constantly grab them before they get back up to avoid getting hammered to the ground and have your moves blocked constantly.

Overall One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows was a rather surprising Bandai Namco fighting game. I do think JUMP FORCE is a better time but considering the saturated amount of anime fighting games this one is pretty decent and I enjoyed my time. Enjoyed it a lot to which it made me want to revisit the anime again. I have also achieved the Platinum trophy which was doable offline with a few additional hours of grinding needed but it was worth the time. Playtime overall took me about 12 hours in total.

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My backlog so far:

Spoiler

#​	PC/Steam Backlog - Game Name:​	Genre:
1​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky	Turn-Based RPG
2​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC	Turn-Based RPG

#​	PlayStation 3 Backlog - Game Name:​	Genre:
1​	3D Dot Game Heroes	Action RPG
2​	Bleach: Soul Resurrección	Fighting
3​	Castlevania: Lords of Shadow	Action, Hack n Slash
4​	Catherine	Puzzle
5​	Drakengard 3	Action RPG
6​	Eternal Sonata	Turn-Based RPG
7​	Folklore	Action RPG
8​	Gran Turismo 5 Academy Edition	Racing
9​	inFAMOUS	Action
10​	inFAMOUS 2	Action
11​	Katamari Forever	Puzzle
12​	MotorStorm	Racing
13​	Prince of Persia	Action, Platformer
14​	Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands	Action, Platformer
15​	SEGA Rally	Racing
16​	Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time	Action, Platformer
17​	Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed	Racing
18​	Spec-Ops: The Line	Action, Shooter
19​	Split/Second: Velocity	Racing
20​	Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
21​	Tekken 6	Fighting
22​	Way of the Samurai 4	Action

#​	PlayStation 4 Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
2​	AI: The Somnium Files	Adventure, Visual Novel
3​	Black Clover: Quartet Knights	Action, Fighting
4​	Bullet Girls Phantasia	Action, Shooter
5​	Burnout Paradise Remastered	Racing
6​	The Caligula Effect: Overdose	Turn-Based RPG
7​	Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions	Sports
8​	Catherine Full Body	Puzzle
9​	Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars	Turn-Based RPG
10​	CRYSTAR	Action RPG
11​	Cyberdimension Neptunia: Four Goddesses Online	Action RPG
12​	Danganronpa 1 Reload	Visual Novel
13​	Danganronpa 2 Reload	Visual Novel
14​	Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls	Action, Shooter
15​	Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony	Visual Novel
16​	Date A Live: Rinne Utopia (Rio-Reincarnation)	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
17​	Date A Live II: Ars Install (Rio-Reincarnation)	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
18​	Date A Live III: Twin Edition: Rio Reincarnation	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
19​	Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory	Turn-Based RPG
20​	Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories	Adventure, Simulation
21​	Dissidia Final Fantasy NT	Arcade, Fighting
22​	Dragon Quest Heroes II	Action RPG, Musou
23​	Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition	Turn-Based RPG
24​	Dragon's Crown Pro	Action RPG
25​	Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen	Action RPG
26​	Fairy Tail	Turn-Based RPG
27​	Fate/Extella Link	Musou
28​	Final Fantasy IX	Turn-Based RPG
29​	Full Metal Panic! Fight! Who Dares Win	Tactical RPG
30​	Gal*Gun 2	On-Rails Shooter
31​	Gintama Rumble	Action, Musou
32​	GOD EATER 3	Action Hunter RPG
33​	Gravity Rush 2	Action, Platformer
34​	The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures	Visual Novel
35​	The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve	Visual Novel
36​	Gundam Breaker 3 BREAK EDITION	Action, Arcade
37​	Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Infinite Combate	Action RPG
38​	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven	Fighting
39​	Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa	Puzzle, Visual Novel
40​	Langrisser	Tactical RPG
41​	Langrisser II	Tactical RPG
42​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel	Turn-Based RPG
43​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II	Turn-Based RPG
44​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III	Turn-Based RPG
45​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV	Turn-Based RPG
46​	Legend of Mana	Action RPG
47​	Megadimension Neptunia VII	Turn-Based RPG
48​	Megadimension Neptunia VIIR	Turn-Based RPG
49​	MELTY BLOOD: TYPE LUMINA	Fighting
50​	My Hero Academia: One's Justice	Fighting
51​	My Hero Academia: One's Justice 2	Fighting
52​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm	Action, Fighting
53​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2	Action, Fighting
54​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3	Action, Fighting
55​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto	Action, Fighting
56​	NEO: The World Ends With You	Action RPG
57​	Neptunia Virtual Stars	Action
58​	Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars	Action
59​	Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered	Turn-Based RPG
60​	Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom	Action RPG
61​	Nights of Azure	Action RPG
62​	Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon	Action RPG
63​	One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4	Action, Musou
64​	One Piece: World Seeker	Action
65​	Our World Is Ended	Visual Novel
66​	Persona 5 Royal	Turn-Based RPG
67​	Persona 5 Strikers	Action RPG, Musou
68​	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney	Visual Novel
69​	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All	Visual Novel
70​	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations	Visual Novel
71​	Punch Line	Visual Novel
72​	Raging Loop	Visual Novel
73​	Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-: Prophecy of the Throne	Visual Novel
74​	Robotics;Notes DaSH	Visual Novel
75​	Robotics;Notes ELITE	Visual Novel
76​	SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays	Tactical RPG
77​	SD Gundam G Generation Genesis	Tactical RPG
78​	Secret of Mana	Action RPG
79​	Sengoku Basara 4: Sumeragi	Musou
80​	Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal	Action
81​	Shadow of the Colossus	Platformer
82​	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster	Turn-Based RPG
83​	Star Ocean: First Departure R	Action RPG
84​	Star Ocean: The Last Hope HD Remaster	Action RPG
85​	Steins;Gate Elite	Visual Novel
86​	Super Neptunia RPG	Turn-Based RPG
87​	Super Robot Wars 30	Tactical RPG
88​	Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers	Tactical RPG
89​	Super Robot Wars T	Tactical RPG
90​	Super Robot Wars X	Tactical RPG
91​	Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet	Action RPG
92​	Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Sessions!	Music, Rhythm
93​	Tales of Berseria	Action RPG
94​	Tales of Vesperia	Action RPG
95​	Theatrhythm Final Bar Line	Music, Rhythm
96​	Tokyo Xanadu eX+	Action RPG
97​	Trials of Mana	Action RPG
98​	Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
99​	Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
100​	Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
101​	Utawarerumono: Zan	Action, Musou
102​	Valkyria Chronicles 4	Tactical RPG
103​	Valkyria Revolution	Action RPG
104​	WipEout Omega Collection	Racing
105​	The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition	Action RPG
106​	WORLDEND SYNDROME	Visual Novel
107​	Yakuza 3 Remastered	Action, Beat em up
108​	Yakuza 4 Remastered	Action, Beat em up
109​	Yakuza 5 Remastered	Action, Beat em up
110​	YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World	Visual Novel

#​	PlayStation 5 Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Alan Wake Remastered	Action, Shooter
2​	CONTROL Ultimate Edition	Action, Shooter
3​	Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII -Reunion-	Action RPG
4​	Cyberpunk 2077	Action
5​	Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles	Fighting
6​	The DioField Chronicle	Tactical RPG
7​	DOOM Eternal	Action, Shooter
8​	FANTAVISION 202X	Puzzle
9​	Fate/Samurai Remnant	Action RPG, Musou
10​	Forspoken	Action RPG
11​	Ghost of Tsushima	Action, Adventure
12​	Ghostwire: Tokyo	Action, Survival Horror
13​	Granblue Fantasy Re:link	Action RPG
14​	GrimGrimoire OnceMore	Real-Time Strategy RPG
15​	Hades	Dungeon Crawler
16​	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R	Fighting
17​	Judgment	Action, Beat em up
18​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie	Turn-Based RPG
19​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak	Turn-Based RPG
20​	Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name	Action, Beat 'em up
21​	Lost Judgment	Action, Beat em up
22​	Mobile Suit Gundam BATTLE OPERATION Code Fairy	Action
23​	MONARK	Tactical RPG
24​	Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten	Turn-Based RPG
25​	Neptunia ReVerse	Turn-Based RPG
26​	Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters	Action RPG
27​	One Piece: Odyssey	Turn-Based RPG
28​	Pac-Man World Re-Pac	Platformer
29​	Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit of Wonder Labyrinth	Metroidvania RPG
30​	Relayer	Tactical RPG
31​	SD Gundam Battle Alliance	Action RPG
32​	Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance	Turn-Based RPG
33​	Soul Hackers 2	Turn-Based RPG
34​	Star Ocean: The Divine Force	Action RPG
35​	Star Ocean: The Second Story R	Action RPG
36​	Tactics Ogre Reborn	Tactical RPG
37​	Tales of Arise	Action RPG
38​	Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2	Sports
39​	Unicorn Overlord	Tactical RPG
40​	Valkyrie Elysium	Action RPG
41​	Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon	Turn-Based RPG
42​	Ys IX: Monstrum Nox	Action RPG
43​	Yurukill: The Calumniation Games	Shoot em up, Visual Novel

#​	PlayStation Classics (via PS5) Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue	Platformer
2​	Everybody's Golf 2	Sports
3​	Kurushi Final: Mental Blocks	Puzzle
4​	The Legend of Dragoon	Turn-Based RPG
5​	Twisted Metal 2	Action, Racing
6​	Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth	Turn-Based RPG
7​	Wild Arms	Turn-Based RPG
8​	Wild Arms 2	Turn-Based RPG

#​	PlayStation Vita Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Bullet Girls	Action, Shooter
2​	Freedom Wars	Action
3​	Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni	Action

#​	Nintendo Switch Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Advance Wars (Re-Boot Camp)	Tactical RPG
2​	Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Re-Boot Camp)	Tactical RPG
3​	Akai Katana Shin	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
4​	Anonymous;Code	Adventure, Visual Novel
5​	Avenger (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
6​	Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition	Adventure, Point & Click
7​	Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker	Puzzle, Platformer
8​	Castle of Shikigami 2	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
9​	Castlevania (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
10​	Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
11​	Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
12​	Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
13​	Castlevania: The Adventure (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
14​	Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
15​	Castlevania: Bloodlines (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
16​	Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
17​	Castlevania: Dracula X (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
18​	Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
19​	Chaos;Child	Adventure, Visual Novel
20​	Chaos;Head Noah	Adventure, Visual Novel
21​	Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition	Turn-Based RPG
22​	Contra (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
23​	Contra Hard Corps (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
24​	Contra III: The Alien Wars (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
25​	Cruis'n Blast	Racing
26​	Cursed to Golf	Sports, Platformer
27​	Cytus Alpha	Music, Rhythm
28​	Deathsmiles	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
29​	Deathsmiles II	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
30​	Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze	Action, Platform
31​	Final Fantasy (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
32​	Final Fantasy Adventure (Collection of Mana)	Action RPG
33​	Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
34​	Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
35​	Final Fantasy IV (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
36​	Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
37​	Final Fantasy VI (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
38​	Fire Emblem Warriors	Action, Musou
39​	Fire Emblem: Engage	Tactical RPG
40​	Fire Emblem: Three Houses	Tactical RPG
41​	Gaiares (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
42​	Granada (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
43​	Grandia (HD Collection)	Turn-Based RPG
44​	Grandia II (HD Collection)	Turn-Based RPG
45​	The House in Fata Morgana	Visual Novel
46​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero	Turn-Based RPG
47​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure	Turn-Based RPG
48​	The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails	Action RPG
49​	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	Action RPG
50​	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening	Action RPG
51​	Live A Live	Tactical RPG
52​	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	Racing
53​	Metroid Dread	Metroidvania
54​	Metroid Prime Remastered	Action, Shooter
55​	MUSYNX	Music, Rhythm
56​	New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe	Platformer
57​	Octopath Traveler	Turn-Based RPG
58​	Operation C (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
59​	Paper Mario: The Origami King	Turn-Based RPG
60​	Powerslave Exhumed	Action, Shooter
61​	Psychic Storm (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
62​	Radiant Silvergun	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
63​	Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess (Marl Kingdom Chronicles)	Turn-Based RPG
64​	Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom (Marl Kingdom Chronicles)	Turn-Based RPG
65​	River City Girls Zero	Action, Beat 'em ups
66​	Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana)	Action RPG
67​	Senran Kagura Peach Ball	Pinball
68​	Senran Kagura Reflexions	Simulation
69​	Shadow Man Remastered	Action, Adventure
70​	Super Castlevania IV (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
71​	Super Contra (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
72​	Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury	Action, Platformer
73​	Super Mario Galaxy	Action, Platformer
74​	Super Mario Maker 2	Action, Platformer
75​	Super Mario Odyssey	Action, Platformer
76​	Super Mario Sunshine	Action, Platformer
77​	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	Fighting
78​	Syd of Valis (SD Valis) (Valis Collection 2)	Action, Platformer
79​	Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE	Turn-Based RPG
80​	Trials of Mana (Collection of Mana)	Action RPG
81​	Triangle Strategy	Tactical RPG
82​	Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon	Visual Novel
83​	Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (Valis Collection 1)	Action, Platformer
84​	Valis II (Valis Collection 1)	Action, Platformer
85​	Valis III (Valis Collection 1)	Action, Platformer
86​	Valis IV (Valis Collection 2)	Action, Platformer
87​	Witch on the Holy Night	Visual Novel
88​	Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition	Action RPG
89​	Xenoblade Chronicles 2	Action RPG
90​	Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country	Action RPG
91​	Yoshi's Crafted World	Action, Platformer

The 2024 '40' Games Goal:

Spoiler

No.	Game	Console​	Acquired​	Genre
1​	Quake	PS5​	2023​	Action, Shooter
2​	Quake II	PS5​	2023​	Action, Shooter
3​	MushimeSama	Switch​	2023​	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
4​	Nioh 2 Remastered	PS5​	2022​	Action Souls RPG
5​	Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade	PS5​	2024​	Action RPG
6​	Final Fantasy VII Rebirth	PS5​	2024​	Action RPG
7​	Puppeteer	PS3​	2019​	Action, Platformer
8​	Stranglehold	PS3​	2023​	Action, Shooter
9​	Final Fantasy VIII Remastered	PS4​	2021​	Turn-Based RPG
10​	Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin	PS5​	2022​	Action Souls RPG
11​	The Hong Kong Massacre	PS4​	2023​	Top-Down Shooter
12​	RUINER	PS4​	2023​	Top-Down Shooter
13​	One Piece: Unlimited World Red	PS4​	2022​	Action
14​	One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows	PS4​	2024​	Fighting

 

[Dai]

Street Fighter 6
A massive improvement over SF5, especially considering the barebones state the previous game launched in. SF6 has an RPG-length story mode that's a great place to learn its systems. While its main plotline is weak, it's fun getting to know all the classic SF characters and slowly adding their moves to your custom character's arsenal. It's hilarious watching Ryu's awkward attempts to learn how to text or indulging Cammy's crazy cat lady tendencies. Sidequests and minigames are all over the place. You can challenge pretty much any random pedestrian to a fight, and each of these offers rewards for completing a random selection of challenges during the match. Throughout, the story mode gradually teaches you how to play the game, starting with the basics and moving on to more advanced techniques.

Outside of that, SF6 has a great base roster of returning and new characters. There are plenty of tutorial and challenge options for learning each character, plus some crazy match modifiers (like bombs or stampeding bulls). Arcade mode is a bit disappointing from a story perspective, since it rarely pushes any character's story forward; they generally end with the same unfulfilled objective as when they started.

I royally suck at fighting games when going up against players who know what they're doing, so I've only had limited enjoyment from the online modes, but this is still one of the best fighting games to get for single-player content.

 

[HWR]

God of War (2018) turned out to be a very good experience overall, despite the dodge mechanic being a bit naff. Moved onto God of War: Ragnarok this weekend too.

Finished Ragnarok and am playing the Roguelike Valhalla add-on currently. Ragnarok is a stronger game overall though the crap dodging and lack of cool bosses excepting optional ones still stood out as flaws. Curious to see where they take the story from here and am glad I finally gave this franchise a playthrough.

 

[Anime1977]

Black myth wukong. Ignore the hot take that a Certain website that claimed that there's no female characters in it.

 

[HWR]

Having played Danganronpa in May and Danganronpa 2 in June I’m finally getting through Danganronpa V3 and it might be my least favourite of the three from a character and narrative perspective but I’m grateful for the improved minigames within the trials.

 

[Doctorkev]

Danganronpa 1+2 were both great, I even enjoyed the spinoff thing Ultra Despair Girls. The Danganronpa 3 anime was decent too.
I've never played past the first chapter of V3 though, not because it was bad, but I must have got distracted or something.
I'll probably go back and restart from the beginning at some point.

 

[Dai]

Princess Peach Showtime
An absolute delight. This is a far cry from the cringey mood-swing powers she was given in Super Princess Peach. Now she has a dozen different costumes, all with unique abilities, and often leading to a variety of gameplay genres. Platforming, action, stealth, cooking, detective mysteries, shooting, and more besides, all filled with characteristic Nintendo charm. It's ostensibly simple stuff, only ever requiring two buttons (jump and a character-specific action), but it throws in new gameplay twists every couple of minutes. Unlike most modern games that pause to pop up a tutorial message every time a new mechanic is introduced, explanations are optional and sometimes there isn't one. Instead, figuring out what new things you can do at any given moment becomes a major part of the gameplay.

The only complaint I have is performance. The framerate is surprisingly unstable for a first-party Nintendo game. It's not game-breaking or anything, but it's especially noticeable in cutscenes and sometimes in gameplay.

It's not a big game, since there are only three levels per costume, but it's an all-killer-no-filler experience where almost every level has a bunch of unique gameplay set-pieces. Progress is also sped along by lower difficulty than the typical Mario game, along with it being a lot easier to obtain the hidden items that unlock boss fights. Completing the game is easy enough, though completionists will find it tricky to obtain every missable hidden item.

 

[NormanicGrav]

More games played! Though the latter half of the month was once again stalled by work which I'm not happy with. I have started the next game in the backlog which is the Secret of Mana remake.

---

#15 - My Hero Academia: One's Justice (PlayStation 4)
Acquired: May 2024

Spoiler: My thoughts on One's Justice

With the manga wrapped up and the anime still airing, I decided to check out the first My Hero Academia: One's Justice fighting game that I picked up a few months back.

Like many of Bandai Namco's games, this is another anime arena fighting game that doesn't exactly have a big budget to it. The cutscenes are mostly non-existent since they re-use stills from the anime, the pacing is a bit slow and the story mode is stretched out to cover as much content as possible. The roster was also rather small since it doesn't cover all of the heroes, granted it does focus mainly on those relevant to the events of Season 2 and the first cour for Season 3.

This game has something to it, because the controls were a lot more complicated than I had expected. For starters, when you move forward to attack your opponent, it pulls a specific power move which felt rather off. Turns out your basic attacks are not tied to moving your character so you press X without using the analog stick and they automatically move towards the opponent while using those attacks which is just so weird to see. I'm pretty sure every other fighting game doesn't do this and for that the controls here, while complicated, just felt too overkill for my liking. I only discovered this approach until the end of the story mode which is not a good look. I did eventually revisit the missions and reach an S rank for each one.

There is a tutorial mode which was handy but one of the attack moves was not clear on its instructions and had to look it up online to see if I was doing it incorrectly or other people had the same issue (and it turned out to be the latter). You had to hold down the button for a while until Deku's character glows then you can let the button go.

I played each of the characters in the roster and there was effort in trying to make each one feel distinct because otherwise you would have had the same character cloned multiple times across the roster, though I generally sticked to Deku with Ochako and Toga as sidekicks during combat. The story mode is fixed to who you play as but there will be a few missions that allow you to pick a character relevant to that fight, for example a few members of Class 1-A during a training fight against All Might.

One positive thing that I would say is the Plus Ultra moves. They were pretty cool and rewarding when you manage to use them against the enemy to which it knocks them out, but I do wish it felt they had more oomph to the visual presentation since Deku's style was lacking considering his power, but I suppose this is early into the story that it wouldn't make sense to go all out. There are a few type of special moves which are based on a bar that's next to your health which you need to fill a few times before you can use it, however you want to be careful because if you don't aim correctly, your attack will miss the opponent. Despite its name, it doesn't take up that much health so don't expect to knock the opponent out when you use it half-way through their health points.

The game's story mode is split into two versions; the Hero perspective which is the default starting point, and then the Villain perspective which is pretty neat. Once you have done both, new missions are unlocked that are based on Season 2's versus arc where Deku & select members of Class 1-A go up against each other before Deku does his training with Gran Torino (Killer Stain arc). In terms of other modes available, you have the online multiplayer and a mission mode which allows you to pick your favourite characters and fight a series of battles to gain levels and items to heal yourself in-between missions. This is a pretty cool mode but it does eat up a lot of your time so I did call it there after finishing 3 of 6 levels (each level adds more and more fights).

Overall My Hero Academia: One's Justice is a decent fighting game with a control scheme that took a while to understand and get right, but I do think there was something here that the developers wanted to make but in the end it just needs the time and budget to polish it. I think I read that the second game is much better but who knows.

---

#16 - Spec Ops: The Line (PlayStation 3)
Acquired: July 2024

Spoiler: My thoughts on Spec Ops

It felt weird to finally check out this cult classic shooter. I've been well aware of this for over a decade and I remember playing the demo that was available on the PlayStation store but never bothered to go any further than that. With the game being delisted due to music licensing, a lot of people had started to hunt down physical versions since the game was never remastered for modern platforms. During one of my CeX hauls I managed to find a copy and picked it up.

Spec Ops: The Line is a third-person shooter that takes place in a what if scenario where Dubai was devasted by a sandstorm and our trio of American soldiers go into the city to look for one of their top-ranking colonels and get him out of there. The story is no doubt the star because it was really well written and engaging. It's surprising how well they portray the situation and the consequences of one's actions throughout, plus there were a number of foreshadowing throughout the course of the game which can easily be missed. Multiple choice decisions are also in the game which adds to the replay value but also different ending choices which aren't necessarily tied to the earlier choices but good to have for having a quick look to see which outcome you preferred the most.

The gameplay was pretty solid with the option to pick up different weapons throughout and get their ammo. The weapons carry over from chapter to chapter if you have the ammo for it, and the cover element is doable but not as smooth as Gears of War's was which populated the idea. Spec Ops does have a unique feature in which you can command your teammates to do specific actions, like shooting an enemy or focus on them which is pretty effective, though I have no clue if its going to be as useful in the harder difficulties. The game can slap you to death at parts even on Normal difficulty, and you can get a game over if your teammates die as well, but that's fine since you need a challenge.

What I also liked is how the weather and environments are involved because in specific moments the sandstorms can appear which adds a sense of fear as you need to traverse whilst also being careful of the enemies that can appear out of nowhere. You can also destroy windows in certain scenes to pile sand on top of the enemies which is pretty cool. The sniper weapons and rifle types were very effective during combat and some of the grenade weapon types were useful too.

The game took me about 5.5 hours to finish the story and I managed to replay some parts to get a vast majority of the trophies. Surprisingly I managed to get almost all of the collectables in one playthrough without the need to use a guide which was actually mind-blowing considering how painful that can be. Chapter select is available so you can look at different choices and endings.

Overall I really enjoyed my time playing Spec Ops: The Line and I'm sad it's no longer available for more people to play it. A rather brave move by the developers to produce a game that is vastly different to other US military shooters and not in a happy celebratory way but always good to have something different than re-using the same ideas over and over again. Remember this game came out during a generation where every military type game had to be like Call of Duty 4 to sell.

Spec Ops: The Line is a multi-platform title so while I played the game on PlayStation 3 it is also available on Xbox 360. The PS3 version ran pretty well with the only hiccup where the game froze for a few seconds because a trophy wanted to pop up which is rather worrying but there were no crashes throughout compared to Killzone 2.

---

#17 - Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PlayStation 5)
Acquired: November 2023

Spoiler: My thoughts on Ys IX

With the upcoming English release of Ys X: Nordics arriving in a few months time, I decided now was a good opportunity to take a look at Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, the latest (prior to Ys X) instalment in the long running franchise. It's been four years since I played the excellent Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and Ys Origin, so I wanted to jump back into the world of Adol and his adventures.

Ys IX going in I knew had some mixed reception by fans, for example Adol is in hiding so his iconic red hair is gone for the first time but at the same time Adol gains powers in the form of Monstrums where he can show off more of his skills against his opponents. The story here is actually really good for the most part, with the beginning and ending portions being the only disappointing aspects. Saying that it was more so the journey and mystery that was very fun and engaging, with bonus points towards specifc moments that were foreshadowed well. I was worried about the story going in at first because the first few hours feels a bit flat but around the end of Chapter 2 it started to reveal more of what's to come which added more intrigue.

Like previous Ys games, the cast of characters you interact with are pretty solid. I'm not a massive fan of the Hawk dude but the others were great. Dogi, Adol's companion, is still around as per usual being the usual Adol best buddy that he is. The visual design is more polished than before so it does feel more like Falcom's The Legend of Heroes more but it looked great on PlayStation 5.

In terms of entry level, Ys IX took place after all of the previous mainline games released so far, but much like Final Fantasy each instalment is standalone with only Adol & Dogi being the duo that have been kept throughout. Saying that though, Ys IX uses this opportunity to make call-backs and references to his previous adventures.

The action RPG gameplay is similar to Ys VIII where you can control up to three party members at a time and have Adol button mash his way to victory with special moves he can pull off throughout using SP, and an extra bar for Boost Mode to pull off extra damage and slowly regain your health. The skills you receive throughout can be levelled up to lower the SP costs but you want to try different skills to fit your preferred combat style.

You can also earn and buy new gear and weapons with the option to upgrade them using the materials you receive on your adventure or just grab ingredients to make dishes to help heal your team that include added bonuses like extra strength and defence. Equipment such as rings and attachments make a return but one of my favourites is actually an attachment that has mini characters tag along your shoulder which I presume was a DLC bonus. I put Mishy the Falcom mascot on Adol's shoulder while Aprilis was on another character's shoulder etc. It's rather funny to see especially during cutscenes.

Similar to the raids in Ys VIII, this game has its own in the form of the Grimwald Nox which is like a hell dimension where Adol and his team must use their Monstrum powers to defeat monsters to protect the real world. In a sense it does sound like the Persona games but with raids and the characters can use their abilities in the real world. Side characters including Dogi will help with adding abilities to help increase the chances of success and receive a solid rank during these combat stuff, which is how I was able to earn S rank for all of the battles.

The journal completion from previous Ys games makes a return, which continues to be addictive and fun. You can find treasure chests scattered throughout, landmarks that cover a shrine or building with bits of lore attached, a collectable pedals that you have to find without a map to guide you, and the world you need to explore to reach 100% completion on a map. There's also affinity points for interacting with the cast over the course of the story with some also unlocking secret areas, sometimes tied to side quests.

In terms of negatives, as much as I like the overall concept and story behind Adol being trapped in the city, I do miss the open world exploration that you have with previous games, so this game is pretty much in a similar model to Ys Origin but on a larger scale with one big area and mini sections to add more variety. The game does open up as you progress the story but its like having a house as the main feature with the garden and car park entrance as the bonus which doesn't add much. The music does have its fair share of rock tunes but nothing that stood out for me to replay or remember constantly.

Despite my brief negatives, Ys IX definitely was the type of game that I needed. The gameplay is easy, simple and nostalgic to what I wanted as of late. My playtime was at 34 hours 32 mins playtime with 100% completion on treasures, monsters, character interactions, map completion, collectables, S ranks on the battles and materials.

The PlayStation 5 version adds more stable performance with fast loading times, solid 4K resolution and 60fps gameplay. The DLC and patches from the PlayStation 4 version have carried over. Ys IX is also available on Switch and while its serviceable you're better off playing the game on PlayStation or PC unless you really want the portable experience (which in fairness the franchise has adapted well for thanks to its instalments on PSP & Vita).

Playing and finishing Ys IX was also slowly giving me the itch to check out The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky which I have on PC but I can't start it without the right setup (My laptop isn't connected to a monitor so I don't have the option to check walkthroughs/internet whilst playing the game at the same time).

---

My backlog so far:

Spoiler

#​	PC/Steam Backlog - Game Name:​	Genre:
1​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky	Turn-Based RPG
2​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC	Turn-Based RPG

#​	PlayStation 3 Backlog - Game Name:​	Genre:
1​	3D Dot Game Heroes	Action RPG
2​	Bleach: Soul Resurrección	Fighting
3​	Castlevania: Lords of Shadow	Action, Hack n Slash
4​	Catherine	Puzzle
5​	Drakengard 3	Action RPG
6​	Eternal Sonata	Turn-Based RPG
7​	Folklore	Action RPG
8​	Gran Turismo 5 Academy Edition	Racing
9​	inFAMOUS	Action
10​	inFAMOUS 2	Action
11​	Katamari Forever	Puzzle
12​	MotorStorm	Racing
13​	Prince of Persia	Action, Platformer
14​	Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands	Action, Platformer
15​	Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time	Action, Platformer
16​	Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed	Racing
17​	Split/Second: Velocity	Racing
18​	Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
19​	Tekken 6	Fighting
20​	Way of the Samurai 4	Action

#​	PlayStation 4 Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
2​	AI: The Somnium Files	Adventure, Visual Novel
3​	Black Clover: Quartet Knights	Action, Fighting
4​	Bullet Girls Phantasia	Action, Shooter
5​	Burnout Paradise Remastered	Racing
6​	The Caligula Effect: Overdose	Turn-Based RPG
7​	Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions	Sports
8​	Catherine Full Body	Puzzle
9​	Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars	Turn-Based RPG
10​	CRYSTAR	Action RPG
11​	Cyberdimension Neptunia: Four Goddesses Online	Action RPG
12​	Danganronpa 1 Reload	Visual Novel
13​	Danganronpa 2 Reload	Visual Novel
14​	Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls	Action, Shooter
15​	Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony	Visual Novel
16​	Date A Live: Rinne Utopia (Rio-Reincarnation)	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
17​	Date A Live II: Ars Install (Rio-Reincarnation)	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
18​	Date A Live III: Twin Edition: Rio Reincarnation	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
19​	Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory	Turn-Based RPG
20​	Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories	Adventure, Simulation
21​	Dissidia Final Fantasy NT	Arcade, Fighting
22​	Dragon Quest Heroes II	Action RPG, Musou
23​	Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition	Turn-Based RPG
24​	Dragon's Crown Pro	Action RPG
25​	Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen	Action RPG
26​	Fairy Tail	Turn-Based RPG
27​	Fate/Extella Link	Musou
28​	Final Fantasy IX	Turn-Based RPG
29​	Full Metal Panic! Fight! Who Dares Win	Tactical RPG
30​	Gal*Gun 2	On-Rails Shooter
31​	Gintama Rumble	Action, Musou
32​	GOD EATER 3	Action Hunter RPG
33​	Gravity Rush 2	Action, Platformer
34​	The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures	Visual Novel
35​	The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve	Visual Novel
36​	Gundam Breaker 3 BREAK EDITION	Action, Arcade
37​	Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Infinite Combate	Action RPG
38​	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven	Fighting
39​	Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa	Puzzle, Visual Novel
40​	Langrisser	Tactical RPG
41​	Langrisser II	Tactical RPG
42​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel	Turn-Based RPG
43​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II	Turn-Based RPG
44​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III	Turn-Based RPG
45​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV	Turn-Based RPG
46​	Legend of Mana	Action RPG
47​	Megadimension Neptunia VII	Turn-Based RPG
48​	Megadimension Neptunia VIIR	Turn-Based RPG
49​	MELTY BLOOD: TYPE LUMINA	Fighting
50​	My Hero Academia: One's Justice 2	Fighting
52​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm	Action, Fighting
53​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2	Action, Fighting
54​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3	Action, Fighting
55​	Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto	Action, Fighting
56​	NEO: The World Ends With You	Action RPG
57​	Neptunia Virtual Stars	Action
58​	Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars	Action
59​	Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered	Turn-Based RPG
60​	Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom	Action RPG
61​	Nights of Azure	Action RPG
62​	Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon	Action RPG
63​	One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4	Action, Musou
64​	One Piece: World Seeker	Action
65​	Our World Is Ended	Visual Novel
66​	Persona 5 Strikers	Action RPG, Musou
67​	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney	Visual Novel
68​	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All	Visual Novel
69​	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations	Visual Novel
70​	Punch Line	Visual Novel
71​	Raging Loop	Visual Novel
72​	Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-: Prophecy of the Throne	Visual Novel
73​	Robotics;Notes DaSH	Visual Novel
74​	Robotics;Notes ELITE	Visual Novel
75​	SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays	Tactical RPG
76​	SD Gundam G Generation Genesis	Tactical RPG
77​	Secret of Mana	Action RPG
78​	Sengoku Basara 4: Sumeragi	Musou
79​	Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal	Action
80​	Shadow of the Colossus	Platformer
81​	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster	Turn-Based RPG
82​	Star Ocean: First Departure R	Action RPG
83​	Star Ocean: The Last Hope HD Remaster	Action RPG
84​	Steins;Gate Elite	Visual Novel
85​	Super Neptunia RPG	Turn-Based RPG
86​	Super Robot Wars 30	Tactical RPG
87​	Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers	Tactical RPG
88​	Super Robot Wars T	Tactical RPG
89​	Super Robot Wars X	Tactical RPG
90​	Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet	Action RPG
91​	Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Sessions!	Music, Rhythm
92​	Tales of Berseria	Action RPG
93​	Tales of Vesperia	Action RPG
94​	Theatrhythm Final Bar Line	Music, Rhythm
95​	Trials of Mana	Action RPG
96​	Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
97​	Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
98​	Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen	Tactical RPG, Visual Novel
99​	Utawarerumono: Zan	Action, Musou
100​	Valkyria Chronicles 4	Tactical RPG
101​	Valkyria Revolution	Action RPG
102​	WipEout Omega Collection	Racing
103​	The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition	Action RPG
104​	WORLDEND SYNDROME	Visual Novel
105​	Yakuza 3 Remastered	Action, Beat em up
106​	Yakuza 4 Remastered	Action, Beat em up
107​	Yakuza 5 Remastered	Action, Beat em up
108​	YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World	Visual Novel

#​	PlayStation 5 Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Alan Wake Remastered	Action, Shooter
2​	CONTROL Ultimate Edition	Action, Shooter
3​	Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII -Reunion-	Action RPG
4​	Cyberpunk 2077	Action
5​	Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles	Fighting
6​	The DioField Chronicle	Tactical RPG
7​	DOOM Eternal	Action, Shooter
8​	FANTAVISION 202X	Puzzle
9​	Fate/Samurai Remnant	Action RPG, Musou
10​	Forspoken	Action RPG
11​	Ghost of Tsushima	Action, Adventure
12​	Ghostwire: Tokyo	Action, Survival Horror
13​	Granblue Fantasy Re:link	Action RPG
14​	GrimGrimoire OnceMore	Real-Time Strategy RPG
15​	Hades	Dungeon Crawler
16​	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R	Fighting
17​	Judgment	Action, Beat em up
18​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie	Turn-Based RPG
19​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak	Turn-Based RPG
20​	Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name	Action, Beat 'em up
21​	Lost Judgment	Action, Beat em up
22​	Mobile Suit Gundam BATTLE OPERATION Code Fairy	Action
23​	MONARK	Tactical RPG
24​	Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten	Turn-Based RPG
25​	Neptunia ReVerse	Turn-Based RPG
26​	Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters	Action RPG
27​	One Piece: Odyssey	Turn-Based RPG
28​	Pac-Man World Re-Pac	Platformer
29​	Persona 5 Royal	Turn-Based RPG
30​	Persona 5 Tactica	Tactical RPG
31​	Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit of Wonder Labyrinth	Metroidvania RPG
32​	Relayer	Tactical RPG
33​	SD Gundam Battle Alliance	Action RPG
34​	Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance	Turn-Based RPG
35​	Soul Hackers 2	Turn-Based RPG
36​	Star Ocean: The Divine Force	Action RPG
37​	Star Ocean: The Second Story R	Action RPG
38​	Tactics Ogre Reborn	Tactical RPG
39​	Tales of Arise	Action RPG
40​	Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2	Sports
41​	Unicorn Overlord	Tactical RPG
42​	Valkyrie Elysium	Action RPG
43​	Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon	Turn-Based RPG
44​	Yurukill: The Calumniation Games	Shoot em up, Visual Novel

#​	PlayStation Classics (via PS5) Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue	Platformer
2​	Everybody's Golf 2	Sports
3​	Kurushi Final: Mental Blocks	Puzzle
4​	The Legend of Dragoon	Turn-Based RPG
5​	Twisted Metal 2	Action, Racing
6​	Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth	Turn-Based RPG
7​	Wild Arms	Turn-Based RPG
8​	Wild Arms 2	Turn-Based RPG

#​	PlayStation Vita Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Bullet Girls	Action, Shooter
2​	Freedom Wars	Action
3​	Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni	Action

#​	Nintendo Switch Backlog - Game Name:	Genre:
1​	Advance Wars (Re-Boot Camp)	Tactical RPG
2​	Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Re-Boot Camp)	Tactical RPG
3​	Akai Katana Shin	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
4​	Anonymous;Code	Adventure, Visual Novel
5​	Armored Warriors (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
6​	Avenger (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
7​	Battle Circuit (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
8​	Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition	Adventure, Point & Click
9​	Captain Commando (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
10​	Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker	Puzzle, Platformer
11​	Castle of Shikigami 2	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
12​	Castlevania (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
13​	Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
14​	Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
15​	Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
16​	Castlevania: The Adventure (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
17​	Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
18​	Castlevania: Bloodlines (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
19​	Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
20​	Castlevania: Dracula X (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
21​	Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Advance Collection)	Action, Platform
22​	Chaos;Child	Adventure, Visual Novel
23​	Chaos;Head Noah	Adventure, Visual Novel
24​	Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition	Turn-Based RPG
25​	Contra (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
26​	Contra Hard Corps (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
27​	Contra III: The Alien Wars (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
28​	Cruis'n Blast	Racing
29​	Cursed to Golf	Sports, Platformer
30​	Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
31​	Cytus Alpha	Music, Rhythm
32​	Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
33​	Deathsmiles	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
34​	Deathsmiles II	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
35​	Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze	Action, Platform
36​	Final Fantasy (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
37​	Final Fantasy Adventure (Collection of Mana)	Action RPG
38​	Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
39​	Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
40​	Final Fantasy IV (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
41​	Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
42​	Final Fantasy VI (Pixel Remaster)	Turn-Based RPG
43​	Final Fight (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
44​	Fire Emblem Warriors	Action, Musou
45​	Fire Emblem: Engage	Tactical RPG
46​	Fire Emblem: Three Houses	Tactical RPG
47​	Gaiares (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
48​	Granada (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
49​	Grandia (HD Collection)	Turn-Based RPG
50​	Grandia II (HD Collection)	Turn-Based RPG
51​	The House in Fata Morgana	Visual Novel
52​	Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
53​	The King of Dragons (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
54​	Knights of the Round (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
55​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero	Turn-Based RPG
56​	The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure	Turn-Based RPG
57​	The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails	Action RPG
58​	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	Action RPG
59​	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening	Action RPG
60​	Live A Live	Tactical RPG
61​	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	Racing
62​	Metroid Dread	Metroidvania
63​	Metroid Prime Remastered	Action, Shooter
64​	MUSYNX	Music, Rhythm
65​	New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe	Platformer
66​	Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
67​	Octopath Traveler	Turn-Based RPG
68​	Operation C (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
69​	Paper Mario: The Origami King	Turn-Based RPG
70​	Powerslave Exhumed	Action, Shooter
71​	Psychic Storm (Telenet Shooting Collection)	Arcade, Shoot 'em up
72​	Radiant Silvergun	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
73​	Red Earth (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
74​	Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess (Marl Kingdom Chronicles)	Turn-Based RPG
75​	Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom (Marl Kingdom Chronicles)	Turn-Based RPG
76​	River City Girls Zero	Action, Beat 'em ups
77​	Secret of Mana (Collection of Mana)	Action RPG
78​	Senran Kagura Peach Ball	Pinball
79​	Senran Kagura Reflexions	Simulation
80​	Shadow Man Remastered	Action, Adventure
81​	Super Castlevania IV (Anniversary Collection)	Action, Platform
82​	Super Contra (Anniversary Collection)	Side-scrolling Shooter
83​	Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter) (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
84​	Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury	Action, Platformer
85​	Super Mario Galaxy	Action, Platformer
86​	Super Mario Maker 2	Action, Platformer
87​	Super Mario Odyssey	Action, Platformer
88​	Super Mario Sunshine	Action, Platformer
89​	Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
90​	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	Fighting
91​	Syd of Valis (SD Valis) (Valis Collection 2)	Action, Platformer
92​	Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE	Turn-Based RPG
93​	Tokyo Xanadu eX+	Action RPG
94​	Trials of Mana (Collection of Mana)	Action RPG
95​	Triangle Strategy	Tactical RPG
96​	Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon	Visual Novel
97​	Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (Valis Collection 1)	Action, Platformer
98​	Valis II (Valis Collection 1)	Action, Platformer
99​	Valis III (Valis Collection 1)	Action, Platformer
100​	Valis IV (Valis Collection 2)	Action, Platformer
101​	Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
102​	Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire (Darkstalkers 3) (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
103​	Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (Capcom Fighting Collection)	Fighting
104​	Warriors of Fate (Capcom Belt Action Collection)	Arcade, Beat 'em up
105​	Witch on the Holy Night	Visual Novel
106​	Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition	Action RPG
107​	Xenoblade Chronicles 2	Action RPG
108​	Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country	Action RPG
109​	Yoshi's Crafted World	Action, Platformer

The 2024 '40' Games Goal:

Spoiler

No.	Game	Console​	Acquired​	Genre
1​	Quake	PS5​	2023​	Action, Shooter
2​	Quake II	PS5​	2023​	Action, Shooter
3​	MushimeSama	Switch​	2023​	Bullet Hell, Shoot 'em up
4​	Nioh 2 Remastered	PS5​	2022​	Action Souls RPG
5​	Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade	PS5​	2024​	Action RPG
6​	Final Fantasy VII Rebirth	PS5​	2024​	Action RPG
7​	Puppeteer	PS3​	2019​	Action, Platformer
8​	Stranglehold	PS3​	2023​	Action, Shooter
9​	Final Fantasy VIII Remastered	PS4​	2021​	Turn-Based RPG
10​	Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin	PS5​	2022​	Action Souls RPG
11​	The Hong Kong Massacre	PS4​	2023​	Top-Down Shooter
12​	RUINER	PS4​	2023​	Top-Down Shooter
13​	One Piece: Unlimited World Red	PS4​	2022​	Action
14​	One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows	PS4​	2024​	Fighting
15​	My Hero Academia: One's Justice	PS4​	2024​	Fighting
16​	Spec Ops: The Line	PS3​	2024​	Action, Shooter
17​	Ys IX: Monstrum Nox	PS5​	2023​	Action RPG

 

[DragoStark]

I recently finished playing through Persona 3 Reloaded.
Thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Mechanically it's practically P5R (which I also very much enjoyed) so I knew it would go down well with me.
I liked the overall message of the game to not fear our mortality and embrace life, and the game kinda hits some deep points about life overall. I'll probably get The Answer DLC that's out soon at some point too.

Yukari Best Girl

 

[Sunshineabove]

Started the Astrobot game for the PS5 last night only played for about an hour so far its good