Prefacing this by saying that you should buy these games used if you want to play them. Don't support Game Freak's shitty business practices.

I had a surprisingly good time with this game, despite all the negative buzz when footage was first posted online. There weren't actually any major glitches when I played? Quite a few graphical errors and frame drops, but nothing game-breaking. The story was pretty interesting, though I didn't get REALLY invested until I got closer to the end and the three paths merged for the final segment. Tha gameplay is really fun, I like how it feels like a happy medium between traditional Pokémon and the new stuff added in Legends Arceus. (though I really miss the dodge roll from that game, I keep trying to do it on instinct...) All the characters felt a lot more fleshed out than usual as well, even minor ones such as your teachers at school.

I REALLY wish that this game got more time to cook before release... I think the finished product turned out as good as it could have given the strict deadline the devs likely had, but you can still really tell that the game is somewhat unfinished. Imagine what even a few months more for things such as bug testing could have done. Please, TPC, let your devs have more time to work on their games. The anime, TCG, etc. can hold us off for a long time, and I'm sure most fans would rather the games take longer to make if it means getting a good quality finished product without overworking anyone. Or at least outsource remakes/non-main games like you did BDSP, albeit to a more experienced company.

Given my site's URL, it's probably obvious how excited I was for this! The original Return to Dream Land was one of my favorite games to play as a kid, so I'm happy I get to experience it again. It's mostly the same game with some new additional content, and I don't wanna spoil anything, so I'll try not to go into too much detail. Getting to play as Magolor again was a dream come true for me; I had been hoping he'd get his own story mode at some point. The ending of it was CRAZY, though again I'm not gonna spoil anything. I haven't been able to fully dive into the side content yet, but I'm hoping to soon. Overall I feel very satistfied with how this remake turned out! Even if upon seeing some of the new/rewritten lore I simply close my eyes

Found myself missing Explorers again, so I thought I'd try out a few hacks. This is the only one I know of at the moment that's the same length as the original. I actually really enjoyed this! There are a lot of twists on the original game that make it interesting to experience if you're super familiar with it like I am. It starts off a bit slow, but picks up quickly as you realize things are definitely not going how they're supposed to in the story. The writing feels true to the original characters, while feeling fresh at the same time. If you've played the original Explorers, its postgame, and the Special Episodes from Sky, I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot. It can be downloaded here.

This is the PMD game I've played the least, so I thought I'd give it another shot. I had a surprisingly good time, despite the easy difficulty. I think this game was kind of screwed from the beginning in terms of fan reception, since Explorers is a lot to live up to. It's also a good entry point for the series, since it doesn't have as many of the more complicated mechanics that the other games have. If you didn't like this game the first time, maybe give it another go with the previously established flaws in mind. Cheesy it may be, but maybe a story about holding onto hope in spite of an increasingly bleak future could be more meaningful to someone in today's world?

One of my most anticipated games in a long time. Despite the world being similar to BOTW, it still brings a lot of new things to the table. The creative freedom in this game is somehow even greater than in that last game, and now it really feels like you can play however you want. You definitely get your money's worth with it if you're looking for something that takes a while, as it took me just over 110 hours to even finish the main story, and there's still so much I haven't done. There are many new enemies, many of which return from past Zelda games, and they're implemented really well. I love the game's take on the Gibdos in particular, they're more insect-like in terms of design and behavior and are very different from the standard mummies we've seen before. The bosses all either reference bosses from previous games or are directly tied to them in some way, which is really cool. Also I think the lack of marketing for certain key features made my experience even more exciting; imagine my surprise when I dove into a chasm for the first time only to find an entirely explorable underground, which if I remember correctly was never even mentioned!

I really like that the Zonai aren't just humans again and actually have unique designs. I do feel kind of let down by the lack of lore for them though? We barely got any idea of what their society was like or why they disappeared. Really, despite how much fun I've been having with the game, I am pretty disappointed with some of the story direction. It's.......fine, I guess, as long as I don't think about it for too long. Pretty much every fan concept for it I saw back before we knew anything about the game was more interesting than what we got. There's barely any mention of the Sheikah tech from BOTW, with it being almost completely absent, and everyone suddenly knows about the Zonai despite them having been supposedly erased from history and only spoken of in "hushed whispers" according to Creating a Champion. Also, WHERE'S KASS??? It's so strange that he didn't appear here and was barely even mentioned if I remember correctly. I thought he'd be added back in with the seemingly inevitable DLC, but that's apparently not happening. I thought that they'd fix a bunch of my issues with DLC, but since that's not on the table it's gonna be like this forever I guess. There actually isn't all that much tying the two games together, aside from it being in the same world. Spoilers, but having Zelda turn back to normal after being the Light Dragon with seemingly no lasting effects is a huge cop out. I know Nintendo's probably not into the idea of doing anything drastic, but still! Also, despite the developers saying they imagined the game as being darker than Majora's Mask, it really...isn't, in my opinion. I know things change a lot during development, but it's still a bit disappointing to me. Also I don't even wanna get into how much this game fucks up the timeline

The dragons are rideable now, 10/10

Another PMD ROM hack that really wowed me. It's hard to talk about without spoiling everything, thought. I really felt how Smeargle always tries to make everyone around her happy, but can't do the same for herself no matter how hard she tries. The puzzles in the dungeons overstayed their welcome a bit, but it didn't really affect how I feel about the overall experience. The art style looks really great, too.

You can download it for yourself here. CW for themes of child abuse, suicidal ideation, and general existentialism.

Barely played any games this year.... I was too busy with other stuff. Hopefully that changes in 2024. Also, I know the picture here only has Indigo Disk, but I couldn't find a good one for the whole dlc okay

This DLC expands on the best parts of Scarlet and Violet, while also adding a lot more challenge that was missing in the base game. I actually found myself needing to quit out of some battles and rethink my strategy, which wasn't something I ever had to do in the main story. The new characters are well-written, and one in particular (you know who if you've played) may be Pokémon's most interesting rival yet. Also wow I wonder if they're hinting at new Unova stuff that's gonna come out soon. It's soooooo subtle

Also even though the epilogue didn't come out until January 2024 I'm still including it here, mainly because it was definitely NOT what I expected and I mean that in the best way possible lol