An Ode to Gacha Games

In September of 2020, Genshin Impact was released to the world. It would go down as one of the most important games that year. It was huge all around the world, much more than any Chinese or gacha game had ever been. If you were into video games around its release, you knew its impact. Everyone was talking about it, it was a phenomenon I hadn't seen since the Pokemon Go spectacle of 2016. For many, myself included, it was their first gacha game.

Now, nearly 4 years after its release, Genshin Impact is still one of the highest grossing mobile games in the world. Its parent company Mihoyo is now known worldwide, where before it was unknown outside of China. Mihoyo's next games: Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, have also made splashes thanks to the market Genshin created, and it's likely we will continue hearing about these big budget gacha games for a long time. We also finally have the first non Mihoyo gacha to find success within the Genshin audience: Wuthering Waves. The gacha game space created by Genshin has changed a lot in these four years, as has its players.

I got into Genshin Impact around its launch, and since then, gacha games have been a consistent part of my life. I played Genshin for approximately two and a half years. Afterwards I jumped into Honkai: Star Rail, which I played consistently for a little over a year. Finally, I've spent the past month or two playing Wuthering Waves and Zenless Zone Zero.

Yet, as I prepare to move into the next chapter of my life, I've decided I am going to end my time with these games, at least for the forseeable future. They are simply too time consuming for the life I will be living.

With all that said, I thought it would be fun to look back on my time with these gacha games. Remember the good times, the bad, and how everything changed when these games hit the market. Head on down below for a fun story on the four years I spent playing gacha games.

Persona 5 Royal Review: It's No Masterpiece

It's been a long time coming, but at long last, after much pushing from friends, I have played to completion Persona 5: Royal. It was a big deal. I had never played a Persona game before, and was always curious to give one a try. All my work friends love the game, and when one offered to lend me his copy, I jumped at the chance. I love JRPGs, it's my favorite genre, and I've played more then I can count. I constantly think about them. When many think of JRPGs, they think of Persona 5. After all, P5R (Persona 5 Royal) is the highest rated JRPG on metacritic. It really kicked the Pesona series into mainstream appeal around the world. So it must be special, right? This is going to be amazing, and I'm going to love it to death, right? Everything's going to go great!........right?

.......

Head on down for my full review. Don't worry, I don't dislike the game or anything. I had a great time with it. However, to say I didn't have big problems with it would be lying. This ended up being a complicated game for me. Head on below to see my thoughts on everything I loved to death about Persona 5, and everything about it that drove me crazy.

A Tribute/Retrospective to the Mario RPGs and Their Different Design Approahces

With the release of the remakes of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 Stars and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, in addition to the announcement of the return of the Mario & Luigi series, I've been in a Mario RPG mood. It wouldn't be the first time. If you go back through this blog, I once wrote many short analyses of various Mario RPGs when I played through them all from 2012 to 2013 (link here). The Mario RPGs mean a lot to me, it's probably my favorite video game series from a personal standpoint. I grew up playing and loving these games, and despite how old I've gotten, they can still touch me in a way few games can. Paper Mario: The Origami King was a reminder of this, as seen in my recent review of it.

With this in mind, I'd like to talk about why I still think about these games, and how I would categorize them under a particular perspective. Head on below for a general analysis of this special series.

My Top 11 Games of 2023

Hello and welcome to the list of my favorite video games I completed in 2023. I played a lot of games this year, and now is the fun time to look back and rank all of them. 2023 was overall a good year for games. For most it was an incredible year, but for me it was.....fine. I must admit, I wouldn't put any game I played this year above my 3 favorite games I played last year (Outer Wilds, Triangle Strategy, and Origami King), so I can't help but feel a little disappointed overall. Nonetheless, it was a fun year with lots of great games to talk about, so without further ado, here are my 11 favorite games of 2023.

An Ambitious Sequel - Pikmin 2 - A Pikmin Retrospective

Hello and welcome to part 2 of my Pikmin retrospective! In this segment I will dive into the second game in the series: Pikmin 2. While the first game wasn't a massive sales hit like Mario or Pokemon, it was still an overall success, such that development on a sequel was quick and welcome. Three years after the first game captivated many players, Pikmin 2 was released on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2004. It established the series as one of Nintendo's main franchises, and the two games would go on to be some of the most beloved on the system.

So how was Pikmin 2? How did it improve on the mechanics of the first game, if at all? How did it change what the first game was known for? Well, let's dive in.

A New Adventure - Pikmin 1 - A Pikmin Retrospective

Pikmin has been one of my favorite video game series since I first played the games around 20 years ago. They hold a special place in my heart. So, to celebrate the long awaited release of the fourth game in the series: Pikmin 4, I thought it would be fun to go back and analyze the first three games. After all, Pikmin 4 will be releasing around 10 years after Pikmin 3, which released around 9 years after Pikmin 2. It is rare for us Pikmin fans to get a sequel, so I'd like to make it as special as possible. I went ahead and replayed the first 3 games, and have just finished Pikmin 4. So what better time to look back and reflect then now, here is Part 1 of my retrospective of the Pikmin series.

How Return to Dreamland Deluxe Reignited my Love of Kirby

Ah Kirby, a franchise that was a favorite of mine growing up. When I was young, I completed every Kirby game I could get my hands on, and considered myself a big Kirby fan.

But then, something happened: I changed. My enjoyment of the Kirby games shrunk over time, and before I knew it I was uninterested in new Kirby games, considering myself done with the series.

Yet, this past month I decided to play Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. So much was it that I've begun to reconsider my stance on the Kirby series, wondering if in fact I may still be able to enjoy these games, and return to being the Kirby fan I once was.

So, how did this happen? In this post I'll be detailing my experiences with the Kirby series, and why Return to Dreamland was so special in bringing me back to Dreamland.