A wise man once told me to "Have faith"

Gonna use this weeks pastebin to discuss the 3 major releases that I have played from 2017.  I'll try to break each game down to categories like gameplay, music, visuals, etc.  These reviews are spoiler free as much as they possibly can be.  I mention nothing about story specifics, only general comments.

--------------------------------------------

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I really though this was a nice break from the standard Zelda format.  A few of us did a bingo race of this game yesterday and it owned.  I'm looking forward to the next one.

Story: (6/10) I only give this a 6/10 because I can't compare it to the other 2 games of 2017.  The story of BotW is good, but it felt a bit held back by the open world aspect.  I don't think this necessarily takes away from the overall game, but it is not your standard, story-driven Zelda game.

Characters: (9/10) BotW Zelda (the character) is my favorite Zelda in the game.  The voice acting and side stories for the characters is very well done, and not over the top.  I think this is one of the places where BotW shines the most.

Gameplay: (8/10) Considering I played over 70 hours of this game and I haven't even beaten it, I'd say the gameplay is pretty solid.  The combat feels good, the open world style is immaculate, and the dungeons aren't overly repetitive.

Visuals: (10/10) This game is absolutely beautiful.  Playing HD Zelda that was made for HD (not remastered) is a wonderful experience.  The framerate issues that many people complained about do exist, but I never once felt like it took away from the visual glory of the game.  It was more of a "if you light EVERY bush in your field of vision on fire, your game lags a bit".

Music: (8/10) Everything you would expect from a Zelda game, and nothing more.  The music is well done, but not exceptional and again I think the other games from 2017 have more in this category.

Overall: (8/10) Great great game, worth buying a switch just for this game.  I look forward to the add on content and the replayability thanks to bingo.

-------------------------------------------

Persona 5

The fact that this game release still blows my mind.  It feels so surreal.  This is the first game I have ever bought the collectors edition for and it was 100% worth it.

Story: (9/10) It's Persona, you know the story is going to be fantastic.  Many nights I found myself wanting to play into the early hours of the morning (and being unable to).  My first playthrough took about 133 hours of in game time (not counting time lost due to death/reloading) and it never got stale.  Atlus continues to impress me with story creation.

Characters: (9/10) Again, it's Persona.  I do not feel the same attachment to P5 characters that I did for P3, but that is something I don't think I will ever be able to match.  The confidant side stories were almost all entertaining, and the ones that weren't were just personal dislike of the characters actions in the story, not because they were bad characters.

Gameplay: (10/10) Zero complaints in this category, in the effort to not spoil, this game incorporated some *new* mechanics to the Persona series, but not necessarily new to the SMT series as a whole.  I can't express my excitement over this change.  I really think it makes the combat (which is already really well done in the other Persona games) just that much better.  The quality of life changes from the previous games is also amazing.  I don't remember ever thinking "man i wish there was an easier way to do this element of gameplay" even once during the game.

Visuals: (10/10) Every ounce of this game is a work of visual art.  Literally everything.  The settings are phenomenal, the characters are detailed exactly the right amount to make the game look smooth as heck, even the menus are brilliant to look at.  The entire game flows together visually so well its really wonderful.

Music: (9/10) Just like the visuals, the music is fantastic.  This is just another thing expected from Atlus.  Persona music always delivers.  The only thing I can complain about is the lack of battle theme diversity.  The battle themes in the game are not bad at all, I just wish there were a few more unique ones.

Overall: (10/10) This is a must-play for JRPG fans and even for those who do not think they are.  I can't say enough good things about this series.  I will say that (similar to a lot of other series) it might be difficult to go back to older games once you play this one because the general improvements in this game are so striking, so I recommend playing Persona 3 and Persona 4 before playing this game (Stories are unrelated other than a few easter egg elements).

-------------------------------------------

NieR: Automata

I just finished the true ending of this game last night and I was talking to Casusby about it.  We both agreed that it is difficult to describe the feelings created by this game other than the fact that it was really just a fantastic experience.  In his words it was "difficult to describe other than the fact that it was incredibly fulfilling".

Story: (9/10) Wow.  Thats about all I can say.  This game DEFINITELY makes you want to know what happens next.  I would say that while this game has a few things that try to hold it back, the story and characters make up for it and then some.

Characters: (10/10) I felt both genuine love and genuine hatred for the characters in this game.  There was a moment while I was playing yesterday where I genuinely resonated with a characters feelings and as I realized that I hadn't felt this way about characters in a game in a LONG time.  Again, the characters and story in this game make it something special to experience, even when the gameplay itself might seem a bit lacking.

Gameplay: I am going to break this up into 2 categories.

-- Combat: (7/10) This is the area I felt could have been improved on.  The general combat is good, but as is very common in Action RPGs the combat was often (NOT ALWAYS) simplified to "mash attack and dodge every once in a while".  That being said there are some very unique combat elements and I do not want to spoil anything but don't get frustrated by the combat if you play this game (you should).

-- Other gameplay: (11/10) Yes this game gets an 11/10 for other gameplay because this was something I have never experienced before.  Platinum Games and Square Enix took my definition of a video game and turned it inside out.  I have played a lot of different types of games in my life and the number of games that were truly redefining to me is very very small, but this is definitely one of those games.  I really don't want to say much because the game is best enjoyed by just playing it.  So please just trust me and play this game.

Visuals: (8/10) This game looks great.  The environment and characters really match the story visually and add to it.  It is very very fitting for the story.  The visuals are not out of this world good, but there was never a point where the game suffered for lack of visual quality.  Animations are well done, and combat animations are really really good.  Cutscenes are really nicely done.  Again there are some things I can't say because its best experienced fresh.  Really solid visuals all around.

Music: (10/10) The music in this game is so good, every song was notably good and the music direction was insanely well done.  The transition from calm music to battle music was seamless and really does a good job of setting the mood for whatever it is you're doing at the time.

Overall: 10/10 Again, I really can't explain how wonderful this game is.  It is truly a unique and fulfilling experience.  There were points where the combat would have made any other game seem sub par but every other aspect does such a stellar job that you really don't notice it unless you try.  If you have a PS4 or the ability to play this on your PC I would HIGHLY recommend this.  It is not a "weeb game" either I promise.

Have faith.

(Side note: I have not played the original Nier or the Drakengard games, I watched a video on the lore from those games and read a bit about the original Nier, and that is enough to understand NieR: Automata.  According to people who have played the other games, there are easter eggs, and a few moments that are made even better if you have played them, but as someone who did not, I never felt like I was left out of a wonderful moment.)

-----------------------------------------------

This was a lot more fun to write than I thought it would be actually.  I hope it was fun to read.

I can't recommend just one of these games, they are all amazing.

I will be finishing up the rest of the side stuff in NieR tonight, and then probably getting the DLC and playing that.

I'm not sure what I will stream once I finish that, but if its even half as good as any of these 3 games, I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading heres a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBwi3D1gvG4

Heres another one related to something I'm SUPER EXCITED for thats happening soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V61l6A3_6uA