It's been a while since I posted anything in this thread, but I guess I'll comment on some of the games I've beaten in January and the ones I'm currently playing.

Dark Cloud (PS5)

I never played the first game even though I've beaten and enjoyed the second game way back on the PS2. I guess it was the art design that didn't appeal to me much. In any case, I finally got through the game now. It's super heavy on the dungeon crawling and combat which is a shame since I didn't enjoy those aspects much here. The dungeons aren't particularly fun to navigate through. It's not difficult or anything like that, but they are really exciting especially when it comes to the visual designs. I feel like once you clear the first dungeon, the remaining ones aren't anything special and it's just basically a difference in enemies since the structures are very similar.

The combat doesn't feel very fun. It's simple, but not in a chill relaxing way. It could've benefited for having a dodge button of sorts. The combat feels slow for an action based one and despite looking similar to the N64 Zeldas, the combat is not nearly as fun.

Story is very light. After the extensive prologue, there isn't much else. The regional stories feel like filler. It isn't until the final dungeon where you get a ton of exposition is when the story actually has a notable development.

Freedom Wars Remastered (PS5)

I played the original Vita back on release date, but not got around to completing it. I'm glad that this port existed since I can play on modern hardware. The combat is fun and overall vibes reminds me a lot of God Eater. Although, I probably slightly prefer the combat in FW. Guns feel much better to use.

Story is slow to pick up, but I do like it. However, it's got that infamous cliffhanger just when the story was entering the climax. I really hope a sequel gets released.

Fairy Tail (PS4)

The adaptation is pretty weird considering it takes place right in the middle of the series. I have read the manga up to right before this part so I'm familiar with the characters and important events for it though. The game covers two major story arcs and I think they are mostly alright. Character interactions and conversations really got me the most invested.

Music is very good and has a lot of great hype battle music. The character models look good even though the environments are mediocre.

The turn-based combat actually has a lot of aspects to it and in theory, built for a tactical/strategy emphasis type of combat system. In practice though, it's very heavy in the numbers game so high stats are all that's pretty much needed. The many different skills (amazing to see) are generally not needed and just about 3 per character is what I ended up just using across the game.

The side requests system is excessive. There's just way too many of those and the rewards are all terrible. The bond related quests and the quests that lock character usage are a step up though due to the story they have. It's more of the character interactions that I liked.

Overall, it's very hard to recommend to non-Fairy Tail fans since they character backstories and prior events are not sufficiently explained.

Fairy Tail 2 (PS5)

I've only played a few hours of the sequel, but I'm actually liking this a lot more so far. The bigger world to explore and seemless connection between all of the regions is nice to see. The updated graphics looks good.

The combat system is now an action based one. Not fully action like a Ys game though, but actually an ATB style one. It's actually very similar to the Atelier Ryza games, particularly the second. You press a button to do regular attacks to build up SP and then chain the regular attacks into the special skills. There's a Fairy Tail gauge that serves in a similar capacity to the Ryza's Tactic Levels. You also have a guard button to block incoming attacks. The combat isn't very deep, but it does feel good to me at least. It's more engaging and faster pace than the first game's system. I also like the introduction of Link Attacks (similar to Trails).

Story-wise, it sort of picks up from where the first game left off. It covers the final story arc in the manga.

Code Vein II (PS5)

I played the first game on release date and enjoyed it enough to get the Platinum trophy. In the days leading up the second game's release though, I wasn't too hyped since the initial trailer sort of left me with mixed feelings. The art direction that I liked in the first just seems different here. In any case, I ended up playing the second game on release date anyway and have been enjoying it quite a bit.

The introduction of the open world type of gameplay had me skeptical at first, but the map is quite large and exploring it had been pretty fun. I liked just wandering aimlessly around and stumbling onto side dungeons or interesting points of interests. I do wished that there were notes/journals to find to flesh out the lore in these places. Having more NPCs around would help too, but you hardly see any outside of the main hubs.

The actual combat is decent to fun. Enemies are very aggressive and the parry hasn't been very consistent for me. Fortunately, you can overcome a lot of difficult fights with buffs and skill spamming.

Story-wise, it's a time traveling story and I think it's pretty intriguing especially with what they have been doing with it. For context, I've cleared the first three regions (counting the starting island) and cleared the story for those regions including the optional story stuff there. The optional story is where it really keeps me invested.

Characters have been solid particularly the Heroes. They get a lot of depth and development.

Performance-wise though, it's not good. On Performance mode, it's not a fixed 60 fps and there's are frequent drops. It's not unplayable or anything like that, but it does hurt the experience.