2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo
2 Yrs✓#
Post 129 - September 12, 2025
Completion - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Definitely my favorite Donkey Kong Country game, it's nice to end the series on a good note. Though it has nothing on the series finale that I'll mention shortly.
First Impressions
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is very similar to Returns, it uses the same engine and everything. But there are a lot of improvements in the movement and level design which make it a significantly better game. The majority of the worlds and levels are really well made, with only a few of them being on the annoying side. The motion controls are also optional in this game, which makes it feel significantly nicer to play. Despite most of the mechanics and everything being the same as the previous game, this is a really massive upgrade, I had some good fun with it. This game has high difficulty, while remaining fair and fun. It strikes a good balance.
Story
The story shares a similar issue with Returns, in that the story is barely even passable. Again the Kremlins work perfectly, it's a shame they weren't brought back for this. The antagonist is rather boring, again with no motive or interesting character at all. The only neat thing is that the game is themed decently well, taking place across multiple islands with different looks and gimmicks. But the overall story is just as weak as it is in Returns.
Gameplay
The first world is quite fun, and the quality stays throughout much of the game which is very refreshing. Worlds 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all great. I had fun with most of the levels in them. 4 was a big water level world which wasn't great. I appreciate that there are underwater levels in this game, but the controls are really odd. Dashing underwater makes DK almost uncontrollable, I always ended up dashing straight into enemies and hazards because I couldn't control it. World 6 was hit or miss. A few of the levels were fun, fair and enjoyable. Then a few of them were really annoying, and a bit too much. Overall the final world was a decent challenge, but it doesn't have the best level design in the game by any means. So the overall level design is good, there are a lot of levels where it really stands out, and only a few where it didn't.
The changes that were made from Returns are great. Movement and jumping is momentum based in Tropical Freeze, which feels significantly better to use than Return's lack of momentum. Again the motion controls being optional is great, being able to roll without needing to shake the controller makes the game feel significantly better. The rolling movement itself was awkward at times, sometimes it just wouldn't work, though most of the time it would. For the most part it wasn't an issue, it's just in the tighter platforming sections it didn't feel great. One of the best design choices in Tropical Freeze, especially in comparison to all the other DK Country games, is that the amount of lives the game gives is proportional to the difficulty of it. The game is difficult, I got stuck on quite a few sections. But it was never nearly as stressful or frustrating because I was never worried about running out of lives. It just felt like a challenging and fun platformer because of that, it made all the difference.
There are a lot of level and world gimmicks. Not all of them are great, but the level design throughout the game is so high quality that that gimmicks don't need to be good. Even levels in the same world, with the same theming and gimmicks felt unique. There were no two levels that were just the same thing, each one has a different sort of gimmick or design goal. There was the occasional level that had some poor design choices. A few sections were way too difficult to sight read, and there are a few random sections that are way more difficult than they should be at that point in the game. I definitely didn't enjoy the entire game, again most of world 4, and some of world 6 just weren't well designed. But most of the rest of the game was really fun to play through, most of the level design is high quality and enjoyable.
The game was just about the perfect difficulty for me, but Funky Kong's shop is a really nice addition. He sells things that help you out in levels, which is a great option for levels that are giving you trouble. The special coin currency is nice, but it can be tough to get your hands on, so you can only get so much from the shop. But still, Funky's shop is a good addition. The boss levels are probably the weakest ones. Most of the bosses are boring and tedious, I didn't find any of them to be particularly fun. Most of them are quite unique at least. The barrel companion gimmick is great. Instead of just having Diddy Kong as a companion, you can have Dixie or Cranky Kong. I honestly just used Dixie 95% of the time because she hovers better than Diddy Kong, and gets the extra height that Cranky Kong can get without having to touch the ground. I do wish there was a little bit more benefit to using the other ones.
Final Thoughts
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a great game. The level design is high quality, the changes made not just from Returns, but from the rest of the DK Country series are great. It isn't the most difficult game in the series, but it still provides a decent challenge. The game manages to be accessible to people who don't enjoy brutal and unforgiving difficulty, with help of Funky's shop. The game has its flaws. A handful of the levels aren't very enjoyable, and the rolling mechanic specifically was clunky and didn't work great in some of the more precise level sections. But almost the whole way through, Tropical Freeze is a fun game, with some creative level design and decently consistent quality.
Rating: 8.5/10
Time: 5 hours, 14 minutes
Days taken: 5
Up next: Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Series progress: 6/7
Other Games & Media
I finished Hollow Knight the other day and overall ended up having an alright time with it. The early to mid game progression and overall exploration are still a big complaint from me, but the game picks up pretty well later on. I may play Silksong at some point, but honestly there's a small chance of me finishing it. It doesn't sound very fun to me. The side game I'm playing now is The Outer Worlds. I've only put a little bit of time into it so far but it's fun.
Up Next & Additional Notes
I will be playing the highly anticipated Donkey Kong Jr. Math for the Nintendo Entertainment System for the series finale, as requested by Exi. It's an extremely long game, so expect a review for it today or tomorrow. Final Fantasy IX is going well. I hit a bit of a rough spot, but I put some more time into learning the combat systems and doing some grinding so it's going very smoothly right now. It'll still take me a while to beat though. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!
Completion - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Definitely my favorite Donkey Kong Country game, it's nice to end the series on a good note. Though it has nothing on the series finale that I'll mention shortly.
First Impressions
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is very similar to Returns, it uses the same engine and everything. But there are a lot of improvements in the movement and level design which make it a significantly better game. The majority of the worlds and levels are really well made, with only a few of them being on the annoying side. The motion controls are also optional in this game, which makes it feel significantly nicer to play. Despite most of the mechanics and everything being the same as the previous game, this is a really massive upgrade, I had some good fun with it. This game has high difficulty, while remaining fair and fun. It strikes a good balance.
Story
The story shares a similar issue with Returns, in that the story is barely even passable. Again the Kremlins work perfectly, it's a shame they weren't brought back for this. The antagonist is rather boring, again with no motive or interesting character at all. The only neat thing is that the game is themed decently well, taking place across multiple islands with different looks and gimmicks. But the overall story is just as weak as it is in Returns.
Gameplay
The first world is quite fun, and the quality stays throughout much of the game which is very refreshing. Worlds 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all great. I had fun with most of the levels in them. 4 was a big water level world which wasn't great. I appreciate that there are underwater levels in this game, but the controls are really odd. Dashing underwater makes DK almost uncontrollable, I always ended up dashing straight into enemies and hazards because I couldn't control it. World 6 was hit or miss. A few of the levels were fun, fair and enjoyable. Then a few of them were really annoying, and a bit too much. Overall the final world was a decent challenge, but it doesn't have the best level design in the game by any means. So the overall level design is good, there are a lot of levels where it really stands out, and only a few where it didn't.
The changes that were made from Returns are great. Movement and jumping is momentum based in Tropical Freeze, which feels significantly better to use than Return's lack of momentum. Again the motion controls being optional is great, being able to roll without needing to shake the controller makes the game feel significantly better. The rolling movement itself was awkward at times, sometimes it just wouldn't work, though most of the time it would. For the most part it wasn't an issue, it's just in the tighter platforming sections it didn't feel great. One of the best design choices in Tropical Freeze, especially in comparison to all the other DK Country games, is that the amount of lives the game gives is proportional to the difficulty of it. The game is difficult, I got stuck on quite a few sections. But it was never nearly as stressful or frustrating because I was never worried about running out of lives. It just felt like a challenging and fun platformer because of that, it made all the difference.
There are a lot of level and world gimmicks. Not all of them are great, but the level design throughout the game is so high quality that that gimmicks don't need to be good. Even levels in the same world, with the same theming and gimmicks felt unique. There were no two levels that were just the same thing, each one has a different sort of gimmick or design goal. There was the occasional level that had some poor design choices. A few sections were way too difficult to sight read, and there are a few random sections that are way more difficult than they should be at that point in the game. I definitely didn't enjoy the entire game, again most of world 4, and some of world 6 just weren't well designed. But most of the rest of the game was really fun to play through, most of the level design is high quality and enjoyable.
The game was just about the perfect difficulty for me, but Funky Kong's shop is a really nice addition. He sells things that help you out in levels, which is a great option for levels that are giving you trouble. The special coin currency is nice, but it can be tough to get your hands on, so you can only get so much from the shop. But still, Funky's shop is a good addition. The boss levels are probably the weakest ones. Most of the bosses are boring and tedious, I didn't find any of them to be particularly fun. Most of them are quite unique at least. The barrel companion gimmick is great. Instead of just having Diddy Kong as a companion, you can have Dixie or Cranky Kong. I honestly just used Dixie 95% of the time because she hovers better than Diddy Kong, and gets the extra height that Cranky Kong can get without having to touch the ground. I do wish there was a little bit more benefit to using the other ones.
Final Thoughts
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a great game. The level design is high quality, the changes made not just from Returns, but from the rest of the DK Country series are great. It isn't the most difficult game in the series, but it still provides a decent challenge. The game manages to be accessible to people who don't enjoy brutal and unforgiving difficulty, with help of Funky's shop. The game has its flaws. A handful of the levels aren't very enjoyable, and the rolling mechanic specifically was clunky and didn't work great in some of the more precise level sections. But almost the whole way through, Tropical Freeze is a fun game, with some creative level design and decently consistent quality.
Rating: 8.5/10
Time: 5 hours, 14 minutes
Days taken: 5
Up next: Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Series progress: 6/7
Other Games & Media
I finished Hollow Knight the other day and overall ended up having an alright time with it. The early to mid game progression and overall exploration are still a big complaint from me, but the game picks up pretty well later on. I may play Silksong at some point, but honestly there's a small chance of me finishing it. It doesn't sound very fun to me. The side game I'm playing now is The Outer Worlds. I've only put a little bit of time into it so far but it's fun.
Up Next & Additional Notes
I will be playing the highly anticipated Donkey Kong Jr. Math for the Nintendo Entertainment System for the series finale, as requested by Exi. It's an extremely long game, so expect a review for it today or tomorrow. Final Fantasy IX is going well. I hit a bit of a rough spot, but I put some more time into learning the combat systems and doing some grinding so it's going very smoothly right now. It'll still take me a while to beat though. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!
2 Yrs✓#
Exi
2 Yrs✓#
If you'll allow me a rant... DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze are interesting games to discuss and read about, because they kind of have to grow on you. They're designed in a very particular way. You make these big, exaggerated jumps and movements that only an ape like Donkey Kong would make. And the levels are designed around that flow, and that's why it has to grow on people. Many people approach it like a Mario game. You have to understand DK's movement and why the levels are designed the way they are to appreciate how great it is. I wouldn't recommend it since you're clearly burnt out of DK, but I think that if you ever go back to them, you might have a better appreciation for both games. If you ask me, they're both excellent games, some of the finest platformers you could possibly play. But you have to put in some work to understand why, and that's a big ask for some people.
Also, your opinions on Hollow Knight are very valid. I love Hollow Knight, but the first half of the game has some pretty bad progression issues on a first time playthrough. I think that the greatness of Hollow Knight, similarly to DKC, comes when you take the time to understand it. In particular, I'm not a fan of exploring Hallownest when I go for any% but in a 100% run, it's honestly one of the most expertly crafted maps I've seen in a metroidvania since... ever? Every location, every path, every secret feels masterfully designed. But it took me a while to realize that. Silksong is a lot better to any%, which I appreciate.
Sorry for the rant, I just figured I'd share some of my thoughts. I'm beyond excited to read your Donkey Kong Jr. Math review. I expect nothing less than an 11.5/10 at the very least. Keep up the great work!!!
Also, your opinions on Hollow Knight are very valid. I love Hollow Knight, but the first half of the game has some pretty bad progression issues on a first time playthrough. I think that the greatness of Hollow Knight, similarly to DKC, comes when you take the time to understand it. In particular, I'm not a fan of exploring Hallownest when I go for any% but in a 100% run, it's honestly one of the most expertly crafted maps I've seen in a metroidvania since... ever? Every location, every path, every secret feels masterfully designed. But it took me a while to realize that. Silksong is a lot better to any%, which I appreciate.
Sorry for the rant, I just figured I'd share some of my thoughts. I'm beyond excited to read your Donkey Kong Jr. Math review. I expect nothing less than an 11.5/10 at the very least. Keep up the great work!!!
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
That's definitely fair, the DK Country series seems like somewhat of an acquired taste for some people. That may be a part of the reason why I loved Tropical Freeze so much more than any of the earlier games, since it was the last one that I played and I had a bit more experience. I definitely managed to get into that flow in Tropical Freeze, though it also seems like it's a bit of an easier game than any of the previous ones. I'm not really one for replaying games so it's unlikely I'll return to any of them for a while, but I'll try to keep that in mind next time I boot one of them up.
I think I'm just used to the Metroid games where every collectible has value, exploration almost always feels rewarding even if you're not bothering with 100%. I love the platforming challenges and everything that Hollow Knight has to get to every collectible. The issue is that many of those collectibles just don't have any value for anyone not going for full completion, which makes exploration feel like more of a waste of time. I do appreciate the game a lot more since finishing it. I'm certain I would enjoy a replay more, the game just isn't the most welcoming to new players.
I'm going to be posting that DK Jr Math review tomorrow, it's going to be a big one. I don't mind the ranting, thanks for taking the time to read and reply!
2 Yrs✓#
Exi2 Yrs✓#
As for DKC, that would explain why you enjoyed tropical freeze so much. I've heard many a tale of people who thought it was great the first or second time but by the third or fourth, they call it one of the greatest games of all time. If you ever feel like replaying a platformer, maybe give DKC another shot!
And as for Hollow Knight, I think you just haven't figured out what to do with your collectables. A lot of the relics can be sold for crazy amounts of geo in the City of Tears. And all those grubs you saved can be exchanged for frankly ABSURD amounts of geo in the Forgotten Crossroads. And that geo can be spent at plenty of places to get new charms, mask shards, vessel fragments, charm notches, and nail arts. But that's another reason why the game is far more fun to 100% than to any%. You don't really need to know where all of this stuff is on an any%, especially since some of it is somewhat obscure. But on a 100% run, everything has purpose. Even stuff like Hallownest Seals can be sold for a couple hundred geo which can make a big difference when you plan to buy everything. The only collectable that I'd classify as "worthless" are rancid eggs. You can trade one rancid egg to retrieve your geo once you die without killing your shade. But not only do you have to trek all the way back to Dirtmouth for that, you also have to use a simple key to even use them at all. They're worth 400 geo each in permadeath mode, but in a normal run, they are pretty pointless. Other than that, I think it's less of an issue of the collectables being worthless and more of an issue of the game not conveying what to do with them, especially if you don't plan to explore every nook and cranny of Hallownest.
Anyways, thanks for letting me rant. I'm waiting for your glowing, heartfelt review of Donkey Kong Jr. Math!
And as for Hollow Knight, I think you just haven't figured out what to do with your collectables. A lot of the relics can be sold for crazy amounts of geo in the City of Tears. And all those grubs you saved can be exchanged for frankly ABSURD amounts of geo in the Forgotten Crossroads. And that geo can be spent at plenty of places to get new charms, mask shards, vessel fragments, charm notches, and nail arts. But that's another reason why the game is far more fun to 100% than to any%. You don't really need to know where all of this stuff is on an any%, especially since some of it is somewhat obscure. But on a 100% run, everything has purpose. Even stuff like Hallownest Seals can be sold for a couple hundred geo which can make a big difference when you plan to buy everything. The only collectable that I'd classify as "worthless" are rancid eggs. You can trade one rancid egg to retrieve your geo once you die without killing your shade. But not only do you have to trek all the way back to Dirtmouth for that, you also have to use a simple key to even use them at all. They're worth 400 geo each in permadeath mode, but in a normal run, they are pretty pointless. Other than that, I think it's less of an issue of the collectables being worthless and more of an issue of the game not conveying what to do with them, especially if you don't plan to explore every nook and cranny of Hallownest.
Anyways, thanks for letting me rant. I'm waiting for your glowing, heartfelt review of Donkey Kong Jr. Math!
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
Post 130 - September 13, 2025
Completion - Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Easily the best 1983 math-like Donkey Kong game of the past century.
Review
Donkey Kong Jr. Math opens up to a riveting title screen, with an overwhelming number of game mode options. It's impossible to choose between CALCULATE A, CALCULATE B, or +-X/ EXERCISE. It's insane to think that this game is 42 years old, it runs better than most well polished modern titles like Borderlands 4. The gameplay is like nothing else I've experienced in a game. You must move around a level to select numerical digits and mathematical operators, using the most basic and barebones movement ever created. The platforming outperforms games that released even 15 years later, like Final Fantasy VII. Winning the game requires you to reach a target number by using the numerical digits and mathematical operators at your disposal, it is simply thrilling.
There's almost too much to cover in this review, I'll have to leave it there. One thing is for sure, Donkey Kong Jr. Math is the best 1983 math-like game I've ever played.
Rating: 3.5/10
Time: 12 minutes
Days taken: 1
Up next: Series Review
Series progress: 7/7
Up Next & Additional Notes
I've already written a lot of the series review, it'll be posted soon.
Completion - Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Easily the best 1983 math-like Donkey Kong game of the past century.
Review
Donkey Kong Jr. Math opens up to a riveting title screen, with an overwhelming number of game mode options. It's impossible to choose between CALCULATE A, CALCULATE B, or +-X/ EXERCISE. It's insane to think that this game is 42 years old, it runs better than most well polished modern titles like Borderlands 4. The gameplay is like nothing else I've experienced in a game. You must move around a level to select numerical digits and mathematical operators, using the most basic and barebones movement ever created. The platforming outperforms games that released even 15 years later, like Final Fantasy VII. Winning the game requires you to reach a target number by using the numerical digits and mathematical operators at your disposal, it is simply thrilling.
There's almost too much to cover in this review, I'll have to leave it there. One thing is for sure, Donkey Kong Jr. Math is the best 1983 math-like game I've ever played.
Rating: 3.5/10
Time: 12 minutes
Days taken: 1
Up next: Series Review
Series progress: 7/7
Up Next & Additional Notes
I've already written a lot of the series review, it'll be posted soon.
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
Post 131 - September 13, 2025
Series Completion - Donkey Kong
As of writing this, the mainline Donkey Kong series consists of 7 games:
1. Donkey Kong Jr. Math (3.5/10)
2. Donkey Kong Country (6/10)
3. Donkey Kong Country 2 (8/10)
4. Donkey Kong Country 3 (6.5)
5. Donkey Kong Country Returns (6/10)
6. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (8.5/10)
7. Donkey Kong Bananza (9.5/10)
The first game in the series is Donkey Kong Jr. Math, which I don't even need to cover it's so iconic.
Donkey Kong Country 1 is an interesting game. It feels decent to play, the controls and physics feel nice. The level design on the other hand, not so much. DKC is guilty of using a lot of cheap level designs and things like enemy spawns. The game is difficult, but it isn't because the platforming itself is challenging. The game is difficult because things like annoying enemy spawns, and a lot of mild inconveniences in the level design. Because of that, the first game in the DK Country series isn't very fun. The difficulty feels very cheap and artificial. There are a few levels in there that are decently fun, it has its moments. But for the most part, the game is tedious to get through.
Donkey Kong Country 2 is a strong improvement. It's almost the same as the first game, but the level design is much higher quality. Most of the levels are well designed and fun to play. There are some levels, especially later on in the game, that have some issues. DKC2 is a decent game though, not a masterpiece, but fun. I enjoyed how it was Diddy Kong and a new character Dixie Kong going on a journey in this one, because in the first game Donkey Kong himself was honestly a bit of a boring character to play as, with Diddy Kong having a jet pack. Dixie Kong is a great addition to the story, and her helicopter hair, was useful and fun. Though it was a little too good at times, being able to hover over large portions of levels.
Donkey Kong Country 3 takes a few steps backwards from that. I like that Dixie Kong makes a return in it, but who is Kiddy Kong? Kiddy Kong might just be the most forgettable character I've seen in a game. All the other Kongs stuck around because they have iconic designs, Kiddy Kong has the opposite of that. The level design is decently creative in DKC3, but many of them are tedious and drag on for too long. The bosses are also terrible in this game, they're extremely gimmicky, and sometimes way too difficult. The earlier levels are alright, but it gets worse further in the game. One good change it makes at least is the world map, it's somewhat open and requires some neat vehicles to progress, which you get by just playing the game.
Donkey Kong Country Returns somehow manages to take even more of a step backward. It's a decent attempt at a modernization of the series, but the level design is completely uninspired and boring. It is a difficult game, but it gets much of its difficulty from that fact that you need to memorize some of the levels, particularly the mine cart ones. Both boring level design, and annoying difficulty make it a painful game to play through. Looking back at it I remember it being just a long and frustrating blur of a game to play through. Most of the first world was fun enough, but from there it completely fell off. It's deepest pit is in world 7, where finding 3 hidden buttons across 3 levels is necessary for progression. DKC Returns is a simultaneously boring and frustrating game.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is the best of the DK Country games, it fixes many of the issues of Returns. There's no mandatory motion controls, which makes many movements so much better to do. The level design is creative, diverse, and fun. And some of the larger changes made to the game design also improve it, such as the game being generous with its extra life giving, and Funky Kong's shop being available as an option if you get stuck. It isn't perfect, most of world 4, and some of world 5 weren't as fun to play through with its level design. But the majority of the worlds and levels were fun to play. One other small downside is the bosses, which are boring and poorly designed, but they're an insignificant part of the game. The majority of my experience with Tropical Freeze was enjoyable, it's easily the most fun and well polished game in the DK Country series.
Outside of the Donkey Kong Country series, Donkey Kong Bananza is the best game in the overall series. Everything from the gameplay to the soundtrack is amazing in Bananza. Though its biggest selling point is the gameplay. The gameplay is pure fun and entertainment, destroying a massive landscape filled with collectibles is extremely fun. All of the different powerups or "Bananzas" are awesome, they're all very unique and fun to use. Pauline also makes for a perfect companion, like I mentioned before the soundtrack is great. The story is also really nice. It is quite basic, but with Pauline being voice acted and being a decently written character, the story is quite enjoyable. The few Kongs that are introduced are great as well, I hope they all stick around in the series. DK Bananza has some of the most fun gameplay I've experienced in a game, with a good soundtrack and decent story to back it up.
The Donkey Kong series is quite good, it is the the most unique platformer series I've played. DKC 1-3 didn't quite do it for me, and Returns isn't great either. DKC Tropical Freeze is one of the better platformers out there though, and for how flawed it is DKC 2 is a fun game. But the best game in the series isn't even a DK Country game, Donkey Kong Bananza is absolutely amazing. If there weren't so many other great games that released this year, it would be my favorite game of the year. My overall rating of the Donkey Kong series isn't great, but the series has some high highs. I'd overall say it's a good series.
Total games: 7
Best game: Donkey Kong Bananza (9.5/10)
Worst game: Donkey Kong Country (6/10)
Total time to beat: 49 hours, 6 minutes
Longest game: Donkey Kong Bananza (23 hours, 22 minutes)
Shortest game: Donkey Kong Country 3 (3 hours, 33 minutes)
Average time to beat: 8 hours, 11 minutes
Total days taken: 47
Average review rating: 7.4/10
Series completed: 17
* DK Jr. Math excluded from some stats for fairness
The average review rating actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be, it's about average. Half of the days I took to play the series are from Bananza alone, realistically it is a very short series. There definitely aren't any games I would call terrible from the series, there are some weak and mediocre ones. But there are none that are just plain bad.
What's Next?
I don't know what series I'm going to play next. I'll figure it out, it may end up being a surprise. I may end up making a poll on the Discord server if I'm indecisive enough, who knows. I'm still slowly making my way through Final Fantasy, it's been a while since my last completion but that's because I took so much time on FF8 and ended up retiring it. I'm making my way through FF9 currently slowly but surely. Thanks for reading, and until next time!
Series Completion - Donkey Kong
As of writing this, the mainline Donkey Kong series consists of 7 games:
1. Donkey Kong Jr. Math (3.5/10)
2. Donkey Kong Country (6/10)
3. Donkey Kong Country 2 (8/10)
4. Donkey Kong Country 3 (6.5)
5. Donkey Kong Country Returns (6/10)
6. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (8.5/10)
7. Donkey Kong Bananza (9.5/10)
The first game in the series is Donkey Kong Jr. Math, which I don't even need to cover it's so iconic.
Donkey Kong Country 1 is an interesting game. It feels decent to play, the controls and physics feel nice. The level design on the other hand, not so much. DKC is guilty of using a lot of cheap level designs and things like enemy spawns. The game is difficult, but it isn't because the platforming itself is challenging. The game is difficult because things like annoying enemy spawns, and a lot of mild inconveniences in the level design. Because of that, the first game in the DK Country series isn't very fun. The difficulty feels very cheap and artificial. There are a few levels in there that are decently fun, it has its moments. But for the most part, the game is tedious to get through.
Donkey Kong Country 2 is a strong improvement. It's almost the same as the first game, but the level design is much higher quality. Most of the levels are well designed and fun to play. There are some levels, especially later on in the game, that have some issues. DKC2 is a decent game though, not a masterpiece, but fun. I enjoyed how it was Diddy Kong and a new character Dixie Kong going on a journey in this one, because in the first game Donkey Kong himself was honestly a bit of a boring character to play as, with Diddy Kong having a jet pack. Dixie Kong is a great addition to the story, and her helicopter hair, was useful and fun. Though it was a little too good at times, being able to hover over large portions of levels.
Donkey Kong Country 3 takes a few steps backwards from that. I like that Dixie Kong makes a return in it, but who is Kiddy Kong? Kiddy Kong might just be the most forgettable character I've seen in a game. All the other Kongs stuck around because they have iconic designs, Kiddy Kong has the opposite of that. The level design is decently creative in DKC3, but many of them are tedious and drag on for too long. The bosses are also terrible in this game, they're extremely gimmicky, and sometimes way too difficult. The earlier levels are alright, but it gets worse further in the game. One good change it makes at least is the world map, it's somewhat open and requires some neat vehicles to progress, which you get by just playing the game.
Donkey Kong Country Returns somehow manages to take even more of a step backward. It's a decent attempt at a modernization of the series, but the level design is completely uninspired and boring. It is a difficult game, but it gets much of its difficulty from that fact that you need to memorize some of the levels, particularly the mine cart ones. Both boring level design, and annoying difficulty make it a painful game to play through. Looking back at it I remember it being just a long and frustrating blur of a game to play through. Most of the first world was fun enough, but from there it completely fell off. It's deepest pit is in world 7, where finding 3 hidden buttons across 3 levels is necessary for progression. DKC Returns is a simultaneously boring and frustrating game.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is the best of the DK Country games, it fixes many of the issues of Returns. There's no mandatory motion controls, which makes many movements so much better to do. The level design is creative, diverse, and fun. And some of the larger changes made to the game design also improve it, such as the game being generous with its extra life giving, and Funky Kong's shop being available as an option if you get stuck. It isn't perfect, most of world 4, and some of world 5 weren't as fun to play through with its level design. But the majority of the worlds and levels were fun to play. One other small downside is the bosses, which are boring and poorly designed, but they're an insignificant part of the game. The majority of my experience with Tropical Freeze was enjoyable, it's easily the most fun and well polished game in the DK Country series.
Outside of the Donkey Kong Country series, Donkey Kong Bananza is the best game in the overall series. Everything from the gameplay to the soundtrack is amazing in Bananza. Though its biggest selling point is the gameplay. The gameplay is pure fun and entertainment, destroying a massive landscape filled with collectibles is extremely fun. All of the different powerups or "Bananzas" are awesome, they're all very unique and fun to use. Pauline also makes for a perfect companion, like I mentioned before the soundtrack is great. The story is also really nice. It is quite basic, but with Pauline being voice acted and being a decently written character, the story is quite enjoyable. The few Kongs that are introduced are great as well, I hope they all stick around in the series. DK Bananza has some of the most fun gameplay I've experienced in a game, with a good soundtrack and decent story to back it up.
The Donkey Kong series is quite good, it is the the most unique platformer series I've played. DKC 1-3 didn't quite do it for me, and Returns isn't great either. DKC Tropical Freeze is one of the better platformers out there though, and for how flawed it is DKC 2 is a fun game. But the best game in the series isn't even a DK Country game, Donkey Kong Bananza is absolutely amazing. If there weren't so many other great games that released this year, it would be my favorite game of the year. My overall rating of the Donkey Kong series isn't great, but the series has some high highs. I'd overall say it's a good series.
Total games: 7
Best game: Donkey Kong Bananza (9.5/10)
Worst game: Donkey Kong Country (6/10)
Total time to beat: 49 hours, 6 minutes
Longest game: Donkey Kong Bananza (23 hours, 22 minutes)
Shortest game: Donkey Kong Country 3 (3 hours, 33 minutes)
Average time to beat: 8 hours, 11 minutes
Total days taken: 47
Average review rating: 7.4/10
Series completed: 17
* DK Jr. Math excluded from some stats for fairness
The average review rating actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be, it's about average. Half of the days I took to play the series are from Bananza alone, realistically it is a very short series. There definitely aren't any games I would call terrible from the series, there are some weak and mediocre ones. But there are none that are just plain bad.
What's Next?
I don't know what series I'm going to play next. I'll figure it out, it may end up being a surprise. I may end up making a poll on the Discord server if I'm indecisive enough, who knows. I'm still slowly making my way through Final Fantasy, it's been a while since my last completion but that's because I took so much time on FF8 and ended up retiring it. I'm making my way through FF9 currently slowly but surely. Thanks for reading, and until next time!
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
Post 132 - September 18, 2025
Completion - Resident Evil
Surprise!
Review
Resident Evil takes a moment to get used to, but it seems like the controls in the remaster are really well done so I never had any issues with it. I went into the game expecting an interesting experience, not in a good way. And while the game has a lot of quirks and is aged, that never bothered me too much. From the fixed camera angles to the long door animations and limited saves, that's the least of the game's issues. In fact the only bad part of the game is the progression. I ended up using a guide, this game would have taken me 3 times as long if I didn't, and that made the progression more smooth. But still, needing to follow a guide to get through a game isn't the greatest experience, it's by far the thing that dragged it down the most for me.
Story
I only did the Jill playthrough, I'm not sure if there's much different with Chris other than inventory slots and health. But the story is well written and enjoyable. It does a great job throwing you into this mansion, and leaving you to find the horrors within. A lot of the story is in notes, some of which are easily miss-able which isn't great, but I found and read as many as I could and it was interesting to follow. Apart from the notes the story is also good, it's like uncovering a big mystery as you gradually find everyone and progress through the game.
From what I got in the notes, something about the family that used to live in the mansion, and some Umbrella corporation did some gross experiments on patients most of which seemed unwilling. I'm not sure if it was to create some bio weapon or if it was just an experiment gone wrong. The present day story is a little less interesting, but still fun to follow. You're just walking through and discovering the secrets of the mansion, while also figuring out what's going on with your own team. The ending with Wesker being a traitor wasn't completely surprising, but it still works decently as a twist, and works well with the ending. The story isn't amazing, but there's some interesting stuff going on with it.
Gameplay
The gameplay isn't very strong in Resident Evil. Again the progression just isn't enjoyable, it's by far the most annoying part about the game. The entire game progression is just solving a bunch of obscure puzzles, which got annoying and tedious especially with the limited inventory space. There's a lot of back and forth in the game, which I wouldn't mind if a lot of that backtracking wasn't just inventory management. The most challenging part of Resident Evil is progressing and enduring the endless puzzles until the end of the game. To be fair I was playing on easy mode, and followed a guide, but even with the more intense encounters the combat was never too difficult. If it weren't for the slow and tedious progression, I wouldn't really enjoyed this game.
The combat is again not too challenging. It could get annoying sometimes, because in any combat encounter aside from some bosses, either you are stun locking the enemy, or you are being stun locked by the enemy. But overall the combat isn't bad, it's just serviceable for the game. It didn't necessarily drag down the experience. It's also quite easy to just ignore and run past enemies a lot of the time. The bosses are fine, none of them are very difficult including the final one. As long as you have some healing items they aren't a challenge. The enemies and bosses do convey a good sense of urgency and panic though, especially ones that are fast or jump out of nowhere, and it never feels cheap either. The enemy designs are all really good and creepy.
And that brings me to my favorite part of Resident Evil, which is the atmosphere. It's a very patient game, in that it builds up tension with ambient music and sounds, and the occasional non-threatening zombie. Then that tension eventually hits a climax with a new strong enemy encounter or a boss, or some story sequence. The horror doesn't just come from jump scares and scary zombies, Resident Evil builds up tension and uneasiness gradually and subtly. No parts of it were ever terrifying at all, but it just makes you feel uncomfortable for a lot of the experience, which is a great thing for a horror game. You never think "I was dumb for falling for that jump scare" in this game, you feel justifiably creeped out from all the tension and the atrocities that you experience in it.
Final Thoughts
Resident Evil is a cool game. The gameplay ultimately brings down the experience, it makes it a bit of a slog to get through. The puzzles are never very interesting, and they're often obscure. Not only that they compose the entire game progression. But for what it has, the story and horror elements of the game are really well crafted. There is a decent amount of diversity in the map as well. A lot of it is just in the mansion, but you also get to explore some tunnels and a laboratory. It does have to maintain the dark and eerie atmosphere, which does end up working really well. Overall Resident Evil was a really neat experience, while it isn't my favorite it's one of those games where I'm happy that I played it at least once.
Rating: 7/10
Time: 9 hours, 40 minutes
Days taken: 4
Up next: Resident Evil Zero
Series progress: 1/13
Here's all the Resident Evil games I'll be playing, I'm even going for a lot of side games in this series. I'd also like to mention that I'll be playing just the remakes for any games that have them, since I've heard good things about them.
1. Resident Evil
2. Resident Evil Zero
3. Resident Evil 2
4. Resident Evil 3
5. Resident Evil - Code: Veronica
6. Resident Evil 4
7. Resident Evil: Revelations
8. Resident Evil 5
9. Resident Evil: Revelations 2
10. Resident Evil 6
11. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
12. Resident Evil Village
13. Resident Evil Requiem (unreleased)
Other Games & Media
I've been playing a lot more of Marvel Rivals since the new season released, it's pretty decent. I haven't played much Slay the Spire, but I'm still enjoying it. And I've been playing Outer Worlds off and on. It's a fun game, I'm just struggling to find the time for it most days. I believe that is it for side games.
Up Next & Additional Notes
I wasn't planning on playing the Resident Evil series anytime soon, but I managed to find all the games on sale across various platforms, so I managed to get the entire series for quite (relatively) cheap. I've also been looking for a fresh series, the last few I've played were just alright. This is not only the first horror series I've played, but one of the first horror games I've ever played. So it should be a fun experience, I'm really excited for this particular series. I also know almost nothing about it, so I'll be going in mostly blind. I'm at least going to give RE0 a shot, but if I'm not enjoying it I'll retire it, it seems like one of the weaker entries in the series. Final Fantasy 9 is going well still, I'm making better progress. I'm a bit past halfway done with it and it's picking up really well, it'll be up there with my favorite Final Fantasy games. But I still won't be done with it for at least another week or two. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!
Completion - Resident Evil
Surprise!
Review
Resident Evil takes a moment to get used to, but it seems like the controls in the remaster are really well done so I never had any issues with it. I went into the game expecting an interesting experience, not in a good way. And while the game has a lot of quirks and is aged, that never bothered me too much. From the fixed camera angles to the long door animations and limited saves, that's the least of the game's issues. In fact the only bad part of the game is the progression. I ended up using a guide, this game would have taken me 3 times as long if I didn't, and that made the progression more smooth. But still, needing to follow a guide to get through a game isn't the greatest experience, it's by far the thing that dragged it down the most for me.
Story
I only did the Jill playthrough, I'm not sure if there's much different with Chris other than inventory slots and health. But the story is well written and enjoyable. It does a great job throwing you into this mansion, and leaving you to find the horrors within. A lot of the story is in notes, some of which are easily miss-able which isn't great, but I found and read as many as I could and it was interesting to follow. Apart from the notes the story is also good, it's like uncovering a big mystery as you gradually find everyone and progress through the game.
From what I got in the notes, something about the family that used to live in the mansion, and some Umbrella corporation did some gross experiments on patients most of which seemed unwilling. I'm not sure if it was to create some bio weapon or if it was just an experiment gone wrong. The present day story is a little less interesting, but still fun to follow. You're just walking through and discovering the secrets of the mansion, while also figuring out what's going on with your own team. The ending with Wesker being a traitor wasn't completely surprising, but it still works decently as a twist, and works well with the ending. The story isn't amazing, but there's some interesting stuff going on with it.
Gameplay
The gameplay isn't very strong in Resident Evil. Again the progression just isn't enjoyable, it's by far the most annoying part about the game. The entire game progression is just solving a bunch of obscure puzzles, which got annoying and tedious especially with the limited inventory space. There's a lot of back and forth in the game, which I wouldn't mind if a lot of that backtracking wasn't just inventory management. The most challenging part of Resident Evil is progressing and enduring the endless puzzles until the end of the game. To be fair I was playing on easy mode, and followed a guide, but even with the more intense encounters the combat was never too difficult. If it weren't for the slow and tedious progression, I wouldn't really enjoyed this game.
The combat is again not too challenging. It could get annoying sometimes, because in any combat encounter aside from some bosses, either you are stun locking the enemy, or you are being stun locked by the enemy. But overall the combat isn't bad, it's just serviceable for the game. It didn't necessarily drag down the experience. It's also quite easy to just ignore and run past enemies a lot of the time. The bosses are fine, none of them are very difficult including the final one. As long as you have some healing items they aren't a challenge. The enemies and bosses do convey a good sense of urgency and panic though, especially ones that are fast or jump out of nowhere, and it never feels cheap either. The enemy designs are all really good and creepy.
And that brings me to my favorite part of Resident Evil, which is the atmosphere. It's a very patient game, in that it builds up tension with ambient music and sounds, and the occasional non-threatening zombie. Then that tension eventually hits a climax with a new strong enemy encounter or a boss, or some story sequence. The horror doesn't just come from jump scares and scary zombies, Resident Evil builds up tension and uneasiness gradually and subtly. No parts of it were ever terrifying at all, but it just makes you feel uncomfortable for a lot of the experience, which is a great thing for a horror game. You never think "I was dumb for falling for that jump scare" in this game, you feel justifiably creeped out from all the tension and the atrocities that you experience in it.
Final Thoughts
Resident Evil is a cool game. The gameplay ultimately brings down the experience, it makes it a bit of a slog to get through. The puzzles are never very interesting, and they're often obscure. Not only that they compose the entire game progression. But for what it has, the story and horror elements of the game are really well crafted. There is a decent amount of diversity in the map as well. A lot of it is just in the mansion, but you also get to explore some tunnels and a laboratory. It does have to maintain the dark and eerie atmosphere, which does end up working really well. Overall Resident Evil was a really neat experience, while it isn't my favorite it's one of those games where I'm happy that I played it at least once.
Rating: 7/10
Time: 9 hours, 40 minutes
Days taken: 4
Up next: Resident Evil Zero
Series progress: 1/13
Here's all the Resident Evil games I'll be playing, I'm even going for a lot of side games in this series. I'd also like to mention that I'll be playing just the remakes for any games that have them, since I've heard good things about them.
1. Resident Evil
2. Resident Evil Zero
3. Resident Evil 2
4. Resident Evil 3
5. Resident Evil - Code: Veronica
6. Resident Evil 4
7. Resident Evil: Revelations
8. Resident Evil 5
9. Resident Evil: Revelations 2
10. Resident Evil 6
11. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
12. Resident Evil Village
13. Resident Evil Requiem (unreleased)
Other Games & Media
I've been playing a lot more of Marvel Rivals since the new season released, it's pretty decent. I haven't played much Slay the Spire, but I'm still enjoying it. And I've been playing Outer Worlds off and on. It's a fun game, I'm just struggling to find the time for it most days. I believe that is it for side games.
Up Next & Additional Notes
I wasn't planning on playing the Resident Evil series anytime soon, but I managed to find all the games on sale across various platforms, so I managed to get the entire series for quite (relatively) cheap. I've also been looking for a fresh series, the last few I've played were just alright. This is not only the first horror series I've played, but one of the first horror games I've ever played. So it should be a fun experience, I'm really excited for this particular series. I also know almost nothing about it, so I'll be going in mostly blind. I'm at least going to give RE0 a shot, but if I'm not enjoying it I'll retire it, it seems like one of the weaker entries in the series. Final Fantasy 9 is going well still, I'm making better progress. I'm a bit past halfway done with it and it's picking up really well, it'll be up there with my favorite Final Fantasy games. But I still won't be done with it for at least another week or two. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
Post 133 - September 24, 2025
Completion - Resident Evil Zero
Review
Resident Evil Zero is the prequel to Resident Evil 1, and for being a prequel it doesn't add much at all. Resident Evil Zero improves in one major aspect, and that is the progression. Where the first game feels like a giant obscure mess of a puzzle game to progress through, RE0 is much less overwhelming and is actually digestible. RE0 is also worse in many ways. The story isn't good, the atmosphere isn't unique or interesting. And they removed a very helpful game mechanic, item storage. Overall RE0 is about just as enjoyable as the first game, but it's a much less unique experience so I can't give it quite as much praise. Everything that was interesting in the first game isn't present in this game.
Story
Some of the backstory that lead up to the mansion incident was interesting to see, but that's the only interesting part of the story. The whole leech theme is at least unique, but that's all I can say about it. You do get to see more of Wesker and his shenanigans leading up to the mansion, why he went there in the first place. But the whole "mysterious man" plot line is nonsense. You learn about the leeches, and the scientist going crazy while working with them. Then at the very end of the game turns out the mysterious man who looks absolutely nothing like the scientist is actually him, and just shapeshifted into the form for some reason after getting killed and revived by the leeches. And the only connection to the main story is that Wesker is the guy that just happened to kill this scientist. RE0 plays out like a generic horror action movie, especially at the end of the game.
Gameplay
The gameplay is nothing innovative. Again the progression is much more linear, which is the best change from the original game. There is the occasional obscure puzzle, for example combining chemicals to get more chemicals, which need to be used to solve some random puzzles. Even then the progression isn't particularly fun, it's pretty basic and is never really entertaining. It's essentially just there, it doesn't hinder the game, and it never makes it fun. With the game being more linear it is a bit less frustrating to deal with at least, it was only frustrating when there was a lot of backtracking. It was nice having a companion who you could separately control. It gives some more inventory space, and the mechanic is cleverly in a few puzzles.
Probably the worst part of Resident Evil 0 is the backtracking. A very nice quality of life feature that the first game has is the item box, which can be used to store and transfer items between save rooms. RE0 removes that entirely, you need to drop spare items whenever you need space. That means that if you leave an item back near the train, and you're in the treatment plan, have fun backtracking. It's very easy to lose items as well, I never used the grenade launcher near the end of the game because I didn't want to spend forever backtracking and searching where I left it. There is a nice item list on the map, which I forgot about most of the time. But even then needing to backtrack for items was a massive pain.
The combat isn't too exciting. It has the issue that whoever is being attacked is basically stun-locked, whether its the player or an enemy. One enemy that's really annoying to deal with are the giant leeches, they have very long reach, do a lot of damage, and are built like tanks. There aren't too many of them in the game thankfully, and I would've found them creepy if they weren't just annoying. That brings me to my biggest issue with RE0, the game is generic, at least in terms of atmosphere and theming. It's just a generic zombie game. The game loves to throw zombies at you, so encountering them never feels special or creepy. The atmosphere and tenseness never gets built up at all, it's just a monotone experience the entire way through. The game never managed to make me feel creeped out or unsettled.
Final Thoughts
Resident Evil 0 is a fine game, I didn't dislike it. But there's nothing special or interesting about it, nothing about it stood out to me. The gameplay is boring, even frustrating at times with the backtracking. The progression is improved, but it isn't enough to make the game enjoyable. The combat isn't special either, it functions at the basic level it needs to. And then the atmosphere is extremely basic, it completely lacks the magic that the first game has. The game never feels tense except in a few late game boss fights, it doesn't have any sort of buildup. Overall it's a fine game, but coming from the first game it's a disappointment.
Rating: 6.5/10
Time: 7 hours, 13 minutes
Days taken: 6
Up next: Resident Evil 2
Series progress: 2/13
Other Games & Media
I haven't had any time to play any side games, other than the short occasional Bloons TD 6 session. Time has been very short. School has been insane the past few weeks, I don't have time so I've just been focusing on series games lately.
Up Next & Additional Notes
It'll be nice to jump into the more modern games, these first two games weren't exactly my favorite. There may be a bit of whiplash going straight into one of the remakes though. I promise I'm making progress on FF9, it's been over a month since I finished the last one. But I'm getting close to the end of FF9, I did hit a bit of a rough patch with it. There was a difficulty spike and I was slightly under-leveled, so I've just spent the last 2 sessions finding new gear and grinding. Depending on how the next week goes, I'd estimate I'll be done within a week. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!
Completion - Resident Evil Zero
Review
Resident Evil Zero is the prequel to Resident Evil 1, and for being a prequel it doesn't add much at all. Resident Evil Zero improves in one major aspect, and that is the progression. Where the first game feels like a giant obscure mess of a puzzle game to progress through, RE0 is much less overwhelming and is actually digestible. RE0 is also worse in many ways. The story isn't good, the atmosphere isn't unique or interesting. And they removed a very helpful game mechanic, item storage. Overall RE0 is about just as enjoyable as the first game, but it's a much less unique experience so I can't give it quite as much praise. Everything that was interesting in the first game isn't present in this game.
Story
Some of the backstory that lead up to the mansion incident was interesting to see, but that's the only interesting part of the story. The whole leech theme is at least unique, but that's all I can say about it. You do get to see more of Wesker and his shenanigans leading up to the mansion, why he went there in the first place. But the whole "mysterious man" plot line is nonsense. You learn about the leeches, and the scientist going crazy while working with them. Then at the very end of the game turns out the mysterious man who looks absolutely nothing like the scientist is actually him, and just shapeshifted into the form for some reason after getting killed and revived by the leeches. And the only connection to the main story is that Wesker is the guy that just happened to kill this scientist. RE0 plays out like a generic horror action movie, especially at the end of the game.
Gameplay
The gameplay is nothing innovative. Again the progression is much more linear, which is the best change from the original game. There is the occasional obscure puzzle, for example combining chemicals to get more chemicals, which need to be used to solve some random puzzles. Even then the progression isn't particularly fun, it's pretty basic and is never really entertaining. It's essentially just there, it doesn't hinder the game, and it never makes it fun. With the game being more linear it is a bit less frustrating to deal with at least, it was only frustrating when there was a lot of backtracking. It was nice having a companion who you could separately control. It gives some more inventory space, and the mechanic is cleverly in a few puzzles.
Probably the worst part of Resident Evil 0 is the backtracking. A very nice quality of life feature that the first game has is the item box, which can be used to store and transfer items between save rooms. RE0 removes that entirely, you need to drop spare items whenever you need space. That means that if you leave an item back near the train, and you're in the treatment plan, have fun backtracking. It's very easy to lose items as well, I never used the grenade launcher near the end of the game because I didn't want to spend forever backtracking and searching where I left it. There is a nice item list on the map, which I forgot about most of the time. But even then needing to backtrack for items was a massive pain.
The combat isn't too exciting. It has the issue that whoever is being attacked is basically stun-locked, whether its the player or an enemy. One enemy that's really annoying to deal with are the giant leeches, they have very long reach, do a lot of damage, and are built like tanks. There aren't too many of them in the game thankfully, and I would've found them creepy if they weren't just annoying. That brings me to my biggest issue with RE0, the game is generic, at least in terms of atmosphere and theming. It's just a generic zombie game. The game loves to throw zombies at you, so encountering them never feels special or creepy. The atmosphere and tenseness never gets built up at all, it's just a monotone experience the entire way through. The game never managed to make me feel creeped out or unsettled.
Final Thoughts
Resident Evil 0 is a fine game, I didn't dislike it. But there's nothing special or interesting about it, nothing about it stood out to me. The gameplay is boring, even frustrating at times with the backtracking. The progression is improved, but it isn't enough to make the game enjoyable. The combat isn't special either, it functions at the basic level it needs to. And then the atmosphere is extremely basic, it completely lacks the magic that the first game has. The game never feels tense except in a few late game boss fights, it doesn't have any sort of buildup. Overall it's a fine game, but coming from the first game it's a disappointment.
Rating: 6.5/10
Time: 7 hours, 13 minutes
Days taken: 6
Up next: Resident Evil 2
Series progress: 2/13
Other Games & Media
I haven't had any time to play any side games, other than the short occasional Bloons TD 6 session. Time has been very short. School has been insane the past few weeks, I don't have time so I've just been focusing on series games lately.
Up Next & Additional Notes
It'll be nice to jump into the more modern games, these first two games weren't exactly my favorite. There may be a bit of whiplash going straight into one of the remakes though. I promise I'm making progress on FF9, it's been over a month since I finished the last one. But I'm getting close to the end of FF9, I did hit a bit of a rough patch with it. There was a difficulty spike and I was slightly under-leveled, so I've just spent the last 2 sessions finding new gear and grinding. Depending on how the next week goes, I'd estimate I'll be done within a week. Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time!
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
Post 134 - September 29, 2025
Completion - Final Fantasy IX
One of my longer completions recently.
Review
Final Fantasy IX takes a step back from all the crazy new ideas that were used in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. Instead of making the combat system even more over-complicated or taking the series to a new place, this game takes a step backward. FF9 takes a lot of inspiration from classic Final Fantasy, the first 6 games, and it's extremely cool to see these systems make their way into a newer Final Fantasy game. The theming takes inspiration from classic FF, from the world, to the music, and to the characters and story. The gameplay also takes that good step backwards, it feels refreshing to play. FF9 doesn't just move backward either, the graphics, movie animations, and overall quality is a massive step up from FF7 and FF8. It does have a few downfalls, a few parts of progression are rough, and many of the boss fights are horrendous. But FF9 is a good game for all of those other reasons.
Story
The story of FF9 is decent, but that's mostly due to the characters. It has the signature Final Fantasy story, it starts with a simple and cute story, and by the end is a cataclysmic event with the fate of the universe at stake. One thing that really enhances the experience is the cutscenes, which are a massive step up from any of the previous games. Characters actually have facial expressions, and special effects and animation quality make for some really nice looking scenes. Many of the big battle scenes in particular are extremely well done. The story is a bit hard to follow, at least later on. Early on the story is great, it's simple and sweet. And then these characters that are from a different world called Terra are actually orchestrating a lot of this. If there was more time spent introducing these characters like Kuja and Garland, the story would have flowed much nicer. The game doesn't tell you anything about them until they're the main villains, so Kuja is sort of just there for a large portion of the story.
The characters are absolutely the best part of the story. Zidane is a good main character, and he has alright character growth. Dagger is a great character, she undergoes a lot of changes throughout the story. Her character growth is slow and natural, going from a naive princess trapped in her kingdom at the start, to the strong Queen of a kingdom by the end. Vivi is also great, though his character is a bit underdeveloped. What's there is great, but I feel like Vivi only has a handful of moments in the story where he clearly has strong character growth, which makes it feel less natural. Steiner is also a great one, he has some of the strongest growth in the story. Freya was a personal favorite of mine, her story is nice but sad. As much as I like her, she doesn't have much character growth at all, and she's only relevant to the plot for one section of the game. Eiko is fine, she definitely adds a lot to the story, but her character growth is minimal. Quina is one of the weaker characters, s/he's just a comic relief character. Amarant has some of the strongest character growth in the story as well, but he's just a bit too edgy. There are also a number of good side characters like Beatrix which added a lot to the story.
The story overall is incredibly long. The early to mid-game are the strongest parts of it in my opinion. Progression feels natural, the story is nice to follow with all these new characters. You just feel like a party of outcasts trying to make their way toward similar goals, with much splitting up and rejoining for various reasons among party members. The two things that make the story good are the characters, and the cutscene quality. The story itself has a lot of depth, but a lot of it flew over my head. The storytelling is revolutionary, but the story itself isn't particularly. Also a random note, there are a ton of easter eggs in this game, and not just from Final Fantasy games. Those were fun to find.
Gameplay
The combat system is tough to learn, but once I had it figured out it worked great. Instead of limit breaks, characters can go into trance after taking enough damage, which is a buffed mode. Trance makes characters stronger, and provides some special abilities as well. I really like the trance system, the only issue with it is that it very rarely gets triggered, even in boss fights. I love that there are a lot more gear slots in this game, for the weapon, headwear, armor, gloves, and accessories. Each equippable item gives special buffs or defense against a particular kind of attack. Not only that, gear gives you special abilities, both passive ones, and even things like spells and summons. And if you use an item enough in battle, you can learn the abilities and use it without the gear equipped. This system works perfectly, all the different armor slots allow you to create curated builds to fight a particular boss or get through an area. You can have both offensive and defensive boosts from multiples kinds of gear, which makes it extremely versatile. The bosses are less of level checks, and more of skill and gear checks.
The skills are all great. One complaint I have about it though is the summons. For being such a large part of the story, summons play such a minor role in gameplay and combat. They usually don't deal enough damage to be worth using, they use so much MP. And most of time I need my white mages on healing anyways for the majority of boss fights. Aside from that, the skill system is great. It works similar to Clair Obscur for reference. Use a piece of gear enough, and you gain the ability to use that ability without the gear even equipped, but the amount of learned abilities you can equip is limited. On top of the different kinds of gear, this system adds so much to the combat. If a boss uses a particular status debuff a lot, you can equip an ability to prevent that. Unfortunately this does mean it's way more challenging to beat bosses on the first attempt, since you don't know anything about them and can't equip anything mid-battle. Overall, the combat system of FF9 is extremely well made. There is a ton of combat variety.
My biggest gripe with FF9 are the bosses. There is good variety between all of them, however the gimmicks are much too aggressive. Like I mentioned, it is very difficult to beat a boss first try, because you don't know anything about them and therefore have no idea what you should have equipped for it. If you don't have the right counter items for a boss, they will completely obliterate you. If you don't have any fire protection, then that Firaga spell will instakill your party member. And there is no way of foreseeing it. It should be difficult to fight a boss without the right gear, but it shouldn't be impossible. Also the boss behavior is completely unhinged, it is nearly impossible to revive characters in FF9. The moment you revive someone, 9 times out of 10, that boss will always aim for that character and keep them perpetually KO'd. So usually that one character that is stuck in revive hell doesn't get any experience from the fight.
That brings me to my only other big gripe with FF9, you are left without a which mage for significant portions of the game. This leaves you to spam potions as the only way to heal. When Dagger and Steiner leave the party for a portion of the story, getting through multiple dungeons and bosses with just Zidane, Freya, Quina, and Vivi was extremely annoying. Thankfully Eiko gets introduced at a certain point, she's another white mage which helped. This made the progression very tedious at times. But for most of the game you do have a white mage available, so it doesn't hinder the experience too much.
The rest of the game is good. Movement still has some of those awkward camera angles over the pre-rendered environments, but it works fine. Enemy encounter frequency is about perfect, there are too many at all. I did have to do grinding at a few points in the game, but it was never too bad. There are only a few minor difficulty spikes. The story progression earlier in the game is perfect, the world is open but limited, so you can't get lost. There's also a decent amount of side content you can do at various points in the game. Naturally though, once you get transportation that doesn't limit your movement across the world, progression became more difficult. It's also easy to fall behind on levels during these full open world sections, which led to me needing to grind a few times. Overall the progression is good, especially in the early game. The lack of exp share was annoying though, because when you're forced to use characters you haven't been leveling at all, you have a really bad time with some bosses.
For as long as they were available, Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, and Freya were my party. The end sequence is decent. The dungeon throws plenty of the best gear in the game at you, so you don't need to stress about being under prepared much. There's a good boss rush which I found enjoyable. The dungeon is also just about the perfect length, it doesn't drag on for too long at all. And there's no annoying puzzles like there are earlier in the game. So, the final boss. Deathguise and Kuja are great. They're challenging, but fair. The real final boss, Necron comes from nowhere. But that's not even the most ridiculous part. Necron took me a few attempts, he's challenging. On my winning attempt, 3 of my party members got wiped only 1 minute into the fight. Freya was the only survivor. Because she had auto-regen, and the boss being completely incapable of using strong lethal attacks, Freya completely soloed the final boss. It took 20 minutes of just spamming the attack button and the final boss went down, because he was literally incapable of killing a single party member. The final boss of FF9 is a joke.
Final Thoughts
Final Fantasy 9 is a very refreshing game. It takes great inspiration from the earlier games in the series, while also adding a lot to it. It is personally one of my favorites in the series so far, but there are a number of issues which really dragged it down. The characters, story, world, and combat are all good. But the bosses were often irritating, along with the number of other inconveniences which dampened the experience that I mentioned. For how flawed the game is, the combat system is remarkable, it's up there with FF5. The progression is also good, especially in the early game (at least when you have a white mage). The story isn't anything innovative, but following it was still very entertaining, especially with the high quality writing and cutscenes.
Rating: 9/10
Time: 37 hours, 56 minutes
Days taken: 25
Up next: Final Fantasy X
Series progress: 8/19
Other Games & Media
I finally found a new side game to play, Stellar Blade! I had it on my radar, and it just went on sale on Steam for the first time and I grabbed it. It's good so far. The combat is really difficult. It isn't my favorite, but the combat feels extremely good once you get better at it. It flows very nicely. I originally got it because it's similar to NieR: Automata, and it is, but I'm not enjoying it quite as much. It's a good game for sure, just not amazing.
Up Next & Additional Notes
Final Fantasy X is a very popular one it seems. I'll also be playing X-2 so these will be pretty long to get through, probably over a month. I've been playing Resident Evil 2, and I'm in love with it so far. It's like Resident Evil 1 if it wasn't clunky and dated (because I am playing the RE2 remake of course). I haven't had to follow a guide at all so far which has made it so much better. I just found the parking garage key and started the orphanage sequence. I'll likely play the second run with how much I'm enjoying the game, it's great. Anyway, I think that's it. Thanks for reading, and until next time!
Completion - Final Fantasy IX
One of my longer completions recently.
Review
Final Fantasy IX takes a step back from all the crazy new ideas that were used in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. Instead of making the combat system even more over-complicated or taking the series to a new place, this game takes a step backward. FF9 takes a lot of inspiration from classic Final Fantasy, the first 6 games, and it's extremely cool to see these systems make their way into a newer Final Fantasy game. The theming takes inspiration from classic FF, from the world, to the music, and to the characters and story. The gameplay also takes that good step backwards, it feels refreshing to play. FF9 doesn't just move backward either, the graphics, movie animations, and overall quality is a massive step up from FF7 and FF8. It does have a few downfalls, a few parts of progression are rough, and many of the boss fights are horrendous. But FF9 is a good game for all of those other reasons.
Story
The story of FF9 is decent, but that's mostly due to the characters. It has the signature Final Fantasy story, it starts with a simple and cute story, and by the end is a cataclysmic event with the fate of the universe at stake. One thing that really enhances the experience is the cutscenes, which are a massive step up from any of the previous games. Characters actually have facial expressions, and special effects and animation quality make for some really nice looking scenes. Many of the big battle scenes in particular are extremely well done. The story is a bit hard to follow, at least later on. Early on the story is great, it's simple and sweet. And then these characters that are from a different world called Terra are actually orchestrating a lot of this. If there was more time spent introducing these characters like Kuja and Garland, the story would have flowed much nicer. The game doesn't tell you anything about them until they're the main villains, so Kuja is sort of just there for a large portion of the story.
The characters are absolutely the best part of the story. Zidane is a good main character, and he has alright character growth. Dagger is a great character, she undergoes a lot of changes throughout the story. Her character growth is slow and natural, going from a naive princess trapped in her kingdom at the start, to the strong Queen of a kingdom by the end. Vivi is also great, though his character is a bit underdeveloped. What's there is great, but I feel like Vivi only has a handful of moments in the story where he clearly has strong character growth, which makes it feel less natural. Steiner is also a great one, he has some of the strongest growth in the story. Freya was a personal favorite of mine, her story is nice but sad. As much as I like her, she doesn't have much character growth at all, and she's only relevant to the plot for one section of the game. Eiko is fine, she definitely adds a lot to the story, but her character growth is minimal. Quina is one of the weaker characters, s/he's just a comic relief character. Amarant has some of the strongest character growth in the story as well, but he's just a bit too edgy. There are also a number of good side characters like Beatrix which added a lot to the story.
The story overall is incredibly long. The early to mid-game are the strongest parts of it in my opinion. Progression feels natural, the story is nice to follow with all these new characters. You just feel like a party of outcasts trying to make their way toward similar goals, with much splitting up and rejoining for various reasons among party members. The two things that make the story good are the characters, and the cutscene quality. The story itself has a lot of depth, but a lot of it flew over my head. The storytelling is revolutionary, but the story itself isn't particularly. Also a random note, there are a ton of easter eggs in this game, and not just from Final Fantasy games. Those were fun to find.
Gameplay
The combat system is tough to learn, but once I had it figured out it worked great. Instead of limit breaks, characters can go into trance after taking enough damage, which is a buffed mode. Trance makes characters stronger, and provides some special abilities as well. I really like the trance system, the only issue with it is that it very rarely gets triggered, even in boss fights. I love that there are a lot more gear slots in this game, for the weapon, headwear, armor, gloves, and accessories. Each equippable item gives special buffs or defense against a particular kind of attack. Not only that, gear gives you special abilities, both passive ones, and even things like spells and summons. And if you use an item enough in battle, you can learn the abilities and use it without the gear equipped. This system works perfectly, all the different armor slots allow you to create curated builds to fight a particular boss or get through an area. You can have both offensive and defensive boosts from multiples kinds of gear, which makes it extremely versatile. The bosses are less of level checks, and more of skill and gear checks.
The skills are all great. One complaint I have about it though is the summons. For being such a large part of the story, summons play such a minor role in gameplay and combat. They usually don't deal enough damage to be worth using, they use so much MP. And most of time I need my white mages on healing anyways for the majority of boss fights. Aside from that, the skill system is great. It works similar to Clair Obscur for reference. Use a piece of gear enough, and you gain the ability to use that ability without the gear even equipped, but the amount of learned abilities you can equip is limited. On top of the different kinds of gear, this system adds so much to the combat. If a boss uses a particular status debuff a lot, you can equip an ability to prevent that. Unfortunately this does mean it's way more challenging to beat bosses on the first attempt, since you don't know anything about them and can't equip anything mid-battle. Overall, the combat system of FF9 is extremely well made. There is a ton of combat variety.
My biggest gripe with FF9 are the bosses. There is good variety between all of them, however the gimmicks are much too aggressive. Like I mentioned, it is very difficult to beat a boss first try, because you don't know anything about them and therefore have no idea what you should have equipped for it. If you don't have the right counter items for a boss, they will completely obliterate you. If you don't have any fire protection, then that Firaga spell will instakill your party member. And there is no way of foreseeing it. It should be difficult to fight a boss without the right gear, but it shouldn't be impossible. Also the boss behavior is completely unhinged, it is nearly impossible to revive characters in FF9. The moment you revive someone, 9 times out of 10, that boss will always aim for that character and keep them perpetually KO'd. So usually that one character that is stuck in revive hell doesn't get any experience from the fight.
That brings me to my only other big gripe with FF9, you are left without a which mage for significant portions of the game. This leaves you to spam potions as the only way to heal. When Dagger and Steiner leave the party for a portion of the story, getting through multiple dungeons and bosses with just Zidane, Freya, Quina, and Vivi was extremely annoying. Thankfully Eiko gets introduced at a certain point, she's another white mage which helped. This made the progression very tedious at times. But for most of the game you do have a white mage available, so it doesn't hinder the experience too much.
The rest of the game is good. Movement still has some of those awkward camera angles over the pre-rendered environments, but it works fine. Enemy encounter frequency is about perfect, there are too many at all. I did have to do grinding at a few points in the game, but it was never too bad. There are only a few minor difficulty spikes. The story progression earlier in the game is perfect, the world is open but limited, so you can't get lost. There's also a decent amount of side content you can do at various points in the game. Naturally though, once you get transportation that doesn't limit your movement across the world, progression became more difficult. It's also easy to fall behind on levels during these full open world sections, which led to me needing to grind a few times. Overall the progression is good, especially in the early game. The lack of exp share was annoying though, because when you're forced to use characters you haven't been leveling at all, you have a really bad time with some bosses.
For as long as they were available, Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, and Freya were my party. The end sequence is decent. The dungeon throws plenty of the best gear in the game at you, so you don't need to stress about being under prepared much. There's a good boss rush which I found enjoyable. The dungeon is also just about the perfect length, it doesn't drag on for too long at all. And there's no annoying puzzles like there are earlier in the game. So, the final boss. Deathguise and Kuja are great. They're challenging, but fair. The real final boss, Necron comes from nowhere. But that's not even the most ridiculous part. Necron took me a few attempts, he's challenging. On my winning attempt, 3 of my party members got wiped only 1 minute into the fight. Freya was the only survivor. Because she had auto-regen, and the boss being completely incapable of using strong lethal attacks, Freya completely soloed the final boss. It took 20 minutes of just spamming the attack button and the final boss went down, because he was literally incapable of killing a single party member. The final boss of FF9 is a joke.
Final Thoughts
Final Fantasy 9 is a very refreshing game. It takes great inspiration from the earlier games in the series, while also adding a lot to it. It is personally one of my favorites in the series so far, but there are a number of issues which really dragged it down. The characters, story, world, and combat are all good. But the bosses were often irritating, along with the number of other inconveniences which dampened the experience that I mentioned. For how flawed the game is, the combat system is remarkable, it's up there with FF5. The progression is also good, especially in the early game (at least when you have a white mage). The story isn't anything innovative, but following it was still very entertaining, especially with the high quality writing and cutscenes.
Rating: 9/10
Time: 37 hours, 56 minutes
Days taken: 25
Up next: Final Fantasy X
Series progress: 8/19
Other Games & Media
I finally found a new side game to play, Stellar Blade! I had it on my radar, and it just went on sale on Steam for the first time and I grabbed it. It's good so far. The combat is really difficult. It isn't my favorite, but the combat feels extremely good once you get better at it. It flows very nicely. I originally got it because it's similar to NieR: Automata, and it is, but I'm not enjoying it quite as much. It's a good game for sure, just not amazing.
Up Next & Additional Notes
Final Fantasy X is a very popular one it seems. I'll also be playing X-2 so these will be pretty long to get through, probably over a month. I've been playing Resident Evil 2, and I'm in love with it so far. It's like Resident Evil 1 if it wasn't clunky and dated (because I am playing the RE2 remake of course). I haven't had to follow a guide at all so far which has made it so much better. I just found the parking garage key and started the orphanage sequence. I'll likely play the second run with how much I'm enjoying the game, it's great. Anyway, I think that's it. Thanks for reading, and until next time!
2 Yrs✓#
Fireryyo
2 Yrs✓#
It's funny I also had the same experience with the final boss except, instead of Freya it was Vivi, I was having so much trouble beating him and being defeated over and over again, when Vivi was the only one alive, I have lost all the hope but lo and behold that little guy with auto regen and some potions eventually destroyed the final boss and one more thing, you have said that the enemy encounters were perfect but I thought there were too many especially because of how long the initial transistion takes (I played in PS1 emulator) it felt agonizing and I personally thought that boss battle were fine and not that hard expect the final boss
I agree with all your other points especially the part about Vivi's character growth feeling less natural and early to mid-game story being the strongest
I agree with all your other points especially the part about Vivi's character growth feeling less natural and early to mid-game story being the strongest
2 Yrs✓#
Dorobo2 Yrs✓#
Most of the bosses weren't too difficult, just frustrating. I played the PC port which is pretty much a remaster, maybe the encounter rates are different between them. I agree the battle start animation was really annoying though. It's way too long with the fade to the battle, and the 3 different camera shots the game needs to get before the fight actually starts. I personally had the battle speed turned up to the highest to make that more bearable, it made the battles a little tougher but it helped a lot. I don't know if battle speed is in the original or not though.