There's no other game like NiGHTS into Dreams, also there's no christmas game like NiGHTS into Dreams.

And shame on you SEGA for delisting this game and the whole recent Yakuza situation, you can do better.

The game that made me fall in love with blobbers.

Despite how basic it may be compared to the sequels, I feel absolutely entertained with the gameplay loop, the amazing soundtrack, the importance of granular decision making and the unapologetic level of challenge. I'm super keen on how mechanics-focused everything feels.

ATLUS, please bring more Etrian Odyssey titles to Steam.

It plays like a Platinum character action game while borrowing some surface level elements from the past 3D Ninja Gaiden games. At the end of the day it's doing its own thing in the mix for better or worse. Still, it's probably one of the most challenging action games released since the previous generation, game is solid and a treat to the senses, but don't come in expecting Ninja Gaiden 2.5 or something, it feels more like Bayonetta Gaiden Revengeance if you know what I mean and I don't say that as a bad thing. I'm having a blast but I have some criticisms, I love the past 3D Ninja Gaiden games and I'm also loving NG4, so giant wall of text incoming with lots of nitpicks:

Honestly, compared to this I'd prefer the original 3D NG games due to their unique take on combat flow (short~medium length combos, both you and your foes are equally deadly being able to quickly kill each other, highly focused on the importance of positioning, movement and commitement capitalizing on your i-frames, etc.) and that straight to the face action, easy to control but hard to master (few but strongly expressive system mechanics), no long detours from the action via modern gaming tropes like: tutorializing everything, slow walk + dialogue segments, long dialogues for a story that none cares enough, press L3+R3 for rage cinematic comeback mode and whatnot. The past 3D NG games were all about non stop action and story delivery was made only via skipabble cutscenes (excluding NG3) and the optional scrolls from dead enemies. I'm also not a fan of the rail sections, they feel like a novelty that adds nothing to the game and hinders the pacing (in a game which is very oddly paced already) of future multiple playthroughs. Well, at least the boss fights in NG4 are nowhere near the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like some from the 3D NG games, actually they can range from "bad giant Dark Souls boss" to great encounters in NG4 even tho that's a low bar to clear.

My least favorite chapters were the ones taking place on the windy mountains (this one hammers my CPU performance like no other level in this game) and the "disco sewers" pursuing the shark, I've felt like both of those drags on the pacing for way too long, especially the shark level due to the encounter design filled with so many uninteresting high health enemies and that surfing navigation felt awful combined with the uninteresting level design and the lack of a map if you decide to explore to complete side missions.

There are some other aspects of NG4 that could be improved imo, like cancelling into block / raven skill could be a bit more free form considering the amount of enemy agression (which is not a problem by itself), overuse of particle effects and wonky camera that hinders enemy readability combined with off screen bs you gotta deal with (again, off screen attacks is not a problem by itself, just like high enemy count). Do I even need to mention the awful low health screen effect? I can't believe someone in the development room looked at that and approved it, let me toggle that thing off. I feel like there were plenty of moments were I had no idea how or when I took damage, maybe the overall player damage feedback could be improved.

Also, menus could be faster, we have to deal with loading times in this game for plenty of stuff already. Do we really need to wait for that raven master guy to fall from the sky everytime we'd like to check / learn our skills? And why not always auto-save the game when we interact with Umi to avoid having to buy skills again after dying and return to a checkpoint? Overall I feel like the game loves to waste my time with annoying stuff every minute or two when I'm not engaging with the combat.

I'd summarize the difference in combat flow between the 3D NG games and Platinum's NG like this:

•Platinum tends to go for long / flashy combos, slow-mo / cinematic effects and a focus on the grounded game (block, perfect block, parry, etc.), enemies tend to be spongy for you to show off big combos. You can die quickly but you gotta take your sweet time to deal with the stronger / spongy enemies.

•3D NG games were going for short combos, try to make quick work of the more deadly enemies during crowd control, cinematic effects never overstaying their welcome, constant awareness of your i-frames usage, positioning and movement bc there's no slow motion perfect block or perfect parry to save your day. You can die quickly but you can also kill anything quickly, even bosses.

Two different beasts when it comes to combat flow imo. Not saying one is better than the other, that's subjective, but my tastes gravitates more to what the OG 3D NG games were offering, not just bc I think it's great but also bc there's no other action games doing it like Ninja Gaiden Black / Ninja Gaiden 2 did when talking about the right amount (dose) of its elements so the action, challenge and constant decision making never goes to the backseat.

When I mention spongy enemies and overall combat flow, I'm strictly talking about Yakumo gameplay here, on the other hand Ryu melts everything with massive damage output. Yakumo feels like its going for the stylish approach with that Platinum Games DNA in his design while Ryu catters more to the old 3D NG fans going for efficiency. With that being said, I love playing as Ryu in this game, I just hope they give him more weapons via DLC in the future.

Nonetheless I think this is a superb character action game and probably one of the best titles developed by Platinum, highly recommended, one of my favorite releases of the year. Even tho it feels more like a sequel to Platinum's own action games catalogue than a sequel to Ninja Gaiden 2 (yeah NG2 since most people were disappointed with the direction of NG3). And I'm just glad to see that Platinum still can deliver some high quality action games after the failure of Babylon's Fall and the departure of some big names from the studio. I'm also glad that Koei Tecmo didn't forget about Ninja Gaiden releasing 3 games in a year after the remasters. Good stuff all around at the end of the day.

And R.I.P. Tomonobu Itagaki, the man captured lightning in a bottle with Ninja Gaiden Black and the OG Ninja Gaiden 2, I feel even more respect for the man after trying out NG4 and I doubt anyone from a modern day triple-A studio would be bold enough to replicate the elegance of his direction in such a corporate-oriented industry like we're seeing for the past 10+ years.

The "just 1 more run" factor is strong with this one thanks to the brilliant slices of gameplay variety thrown to the player and the incentive to do so.

Very enjoyable experience, this game is tight.

R.I.P. Tomonobu Itagaki 🐲🥷

Digimon is getting closer and closer to Persona / SMT in terms of narrative and gameplay mechanics while it still maintains its core gameplay design around taming, raising and collecting monsters.

This influx of ATLUS RPG influence has been happening in a significant fashion since the Cyber Sleuth titles and it's a wonderful thing to see how Digimon games are starting to embrace maturity and QoL features helping the franchise to move forward in a fresh yet familiar way.

Amazing game for Digimon fans and probably the perfect starting point for newcomers.

My main criticisms goes to not being able to evolve mons without taking them from the digi farm. Overall the farm system in this game is so backwards even when you compare it to a 20 years old title like Digimon World DS which is baffling to say the least. And finally, the music sounds too muffled, if I'm not using a headphone the BGM is practically nonexistent. I hope they improve these aspects in a patch.

Now give us a sequel to Digimon Digital Card Battle (PS1)!

There are some baffling decisions in comparison with the older releases of PQ1, but it still THE top tier match 3 game with RPG mechanics.

Timeless classic, straight into my veins, period.

Adulthood really hits home when you realize that at some point in your life you had enough free time to backtrack in Hollow Knight.

Probably one of the best games ever made btw.