Recent reviews by Mako

The very first NPC you meet will call you maidenless and suggest to touch grace.
Definitely one of the games ever made.

Tastes like baby food

Gameplay is outdated, clunky, gimmicky and way too experimental to be actually enjoyable most of the time.

Ok, you have ghosts that player can only damage with curse. Ok, you have another area where enemies are constantlly revived unless player has specific aux effect on their weapon. Ok, you have an area where player cant see anything and main character is dumber than a hollow so they cant pick up a torch and need to find a parasite to light surroundings, cast a spell, etc. No, actually this one was not ok. Problem is, this doesnt stop there. More than half of the areas rely on some stupid gimmick. And very few of them are interesting.

Same with bosses. They are either boring and far too easy even on NG+ or gimmicky beyond any reason. Outside of DLC there are only two bosses that are somewhat challenging (still not enough) and fun to fight: 4 Kings and Ornstein & Smough. Yes, this game is not hard at all, and bosses are probably the easiest part. Not sure why it got reputation of a hard game in the first place. Maybe players were just getting stuck on some gimmick withour realizing its a gimmick and they need to do something first. And yea, game almost never cummunicates any of this.

Then I dont know why its called "Remastered". Looks more like "Paid Patched" to me. It does bare minimum - it doesnt crash and doesnt dip below 60 fps on every system (unlike first PC port). There are some minor impovements to visuals but also some occasional downgrades. Overall it looks like something that would be ok to release in mid 2000s, not like 2011 game remastered in 2018, far from it. This version also has a new sound bug, ambient sounds sometimes completely vanish.

If you are coming from newer FromSoft titles turn around and play DS3 or Bloodborne instead. This one is for archeologists only.

Yes, indeed. It is called skill issue, where the transitory responses of the Lords of Edge converge. In venturing forth, the players discover the truth of the old words: "Git Gud."

When the game is started, the bell tolls, unearthing the old Lords of Edge from their sleep... Aldrich Faithful, Saints of the Duel... Farron's Twink Legion, the Gank Watchers... And the reclusive lord of the Mom's Basement, Xiang the Cheater...

Only, in truth... the Lords will abandon their posts... And the Unskilled will rise. Nameless, accursed Unable, unfit even to be farmed.
And so it is, that ash seeketh embers.

Lies of P isnt just another souls clone, its a love letter to fromsoftware and fans. Developers managed to preserve what makes souls games tick and at the same time add enough elements of their own to make their game stand out. Not only that but it also comes as a complete package: great gameplay, great locations design, great visuals, great soundtrack, great characters and story, etc.

Game's difficulty is slightly on a harder side. LoP gives equal importance to blocks, parries and dodges, and expects player to learn when its better to use different mechanics instead of always spamming the same move.
There aren't many weapons (around 40) but almost everything has its own unique moveset and its possible to make custom weapons by combining blades and handles from different stock weapons.
World design/progression is linear with plenty of optional and rewarding exploration to do inside each area.
LoP doesn't have the most technologically advanced graphics but visual design is simply amazing and its the most optimized UE4 game I've ever seen.
Storytelling is much more straightforward than typical fromsoftware, most of the story is given through cutscenes and dialogues (with some exceptional voice acting). And at the same time there are still many lore details left to discover on your own.

Overall Lies of P easily deserves 9/10 and in my opinion is the only "clone" comparable to fromsoftware's own games.

Surpisingly good for what it is. A tie in between LoS and LoS2 events originally released for a portable console.

Unlike other 2 reboot games its a 2.5D platformer, and unlike LoS1 its a proper metroidvania. This is a very loose remake of some original Castlevania games (including original NES game) mashed into one package but segmented into 3 separate acts. Combat is based on LoS1 but received some nice tweaks. Platforming and boss fights are fun.

Small scale and original release platform hold this game back. There isnt enough optional locations and no reasons for backtracking other than collecting stat buffs.

FF12 is an outlier. It's the only numbered FF game directed by Yasumi Matsuno, creator of FF Tactics. And it is also the only numbered FF game to re-use existing world, called Ivalice, again originally from FF Tactics. This should not be a problem since chonologically it takes place thousands of years before any other game. Instead you get expansive world with many original races and nations, it easily puts most, if not all, other FF games to shame. And yes, to address the elephant in the room, it gives strong Star Wars vibes.

The story is a lot more mature and grounded. No angsty teens, world ending schemes or over the top moments in general. It costantly subverts expectations, in a good way. There are no clear heroes or villains. In fact just by looking at Imperial fleet ship names and your own summons you can probably guess something isnt quite right here...
This darker and more mature tone is further supported by toned down color palette and game's music, which focuses on more harmonic and cinematic sound.
Its also worth mentioning that 12's cutscenes and dialogue writing was way ahead of its time in 2006 and still holds well today.

12's gameplay is best described as single player MMO, minus fetch quests and daily routines. It has a lot (and I mean a lot) of vast interconnected locations. There are no random encounters or separate battle screens. Combat in 12 is unique because its all about tactics and preparation, and is almost never about execution. In fact with proper preparation this game will basically play itself, you just have to move your party leader in a general vicinity of an enemy. This is because 12 has gambits system, a set of condition-action rules you can program for each party member. Unlocking new abilities and encountering new enemies, especially numerous story and optional bosses, will require constant refinement of your current gambits, which can be done even during combat. Or you can always issue a manual command that will take precedence over any gambits. In reality this is a lot more fun and easy to understand than it may sound at first. Especially since it reduces time spent on repetitive actions when exploring.

Final verdict: 12 Anakins out of 10.

This game wasnt very well received on release ages ago and this port is questionable so I have no idea why it suddenly has high ratings. Nostalgia goggles?

First thing, this port. This is in fact a remake in disguise. Its not a direct port but instead a nearly 1:1 recreation using Unity engine. While this appoach certainly helped to avoid a lot of technical/compatibility problems it also means this version doesnt always behave like original and lacks a few features (like analog movement or some visual FX). Meanwhle they didnt even bother to upscale backgrounds properly, you need mods to make this port look decent.

Gameplay is a mess. And no, this isnt because this game is old, older games didnt have most of those problems. Characters in FF9 have unique sets of skills, this would be a great improvement over 7 and 8 if it didnt constantly force a specific party on you. For 90% of the game you play what developers wanted, and this is usually the most stupid class composition possible.
Open world. Most FF games arent true open world (which is fine), usually you slowly unlock areas by removing obstacles or getting access to new modes of transportation. But 9 just loves constantly shutting access to previosly explorable areas. By the end around 80% of locations can never be revisited. And unlike most older games there is almost nothing new left to find on your own.
Difficulty curve. In original random battles rate was insane, you could barely make 2 steps without fighting another pack of monsters. This rate was significantly reduced in this version but they didnt update monsters stats accordingly. This means that after having easy time in one area you can encounter a brick wall in next because now you are underleveled. At this point your options are to grind (defeating the purpose of reduced random encounters), abuse broken game mechanics or simply enable built-in boosters/cheats. Eesh.

The story is okayish. It starts well enough but then constantly gets stalled by something random. This feels like a TV series with filler episodes thrown to make it longer. Some side plot lines are introduced but then never explored to full extent. This is what happens when you try to make too many nods to previous games.

FFX is a very special game. First modern FF with voiced characters and full 3D. Yet its also last classic FF by its gameplay. No wonder it usually wins "favorite franchise entry" polls.
Personally Im not a huge fan of some classic gameplay elements like random battles and fixed camera but those are small annoyances. Battle system isnt overly complicated but has a decent strategy depth. Difficulty curve is much smoother than some older games and overall I'd rate this game as moderately easy. The one big change from classic FF1-9 formula is lack of explorable overworld map, the entire game is essentially one gigantic "dungeon".
Story is probably the main reason to play this. It isnt overly complicated (by JRPG standards) but has its own share of twists (some of which observant player can predict). Its a beatifull and moving story, next best thing after cut onions.

X-2 is weird. With big bad gone remaining characters are spending their time goofing around. Its just one big comic relief. Some hate it but I find it fun.
Changes to combat is a mixed bag. I prefer jobs/class swaps (X-2) to swapping characters themself (X) because casted buffs stick and there are more distinct classes in X-2. But speeding up was bad idea and wait mode doesnt work like it should (it only pauses enemy actions when you are in submenus) and charge time before performing selected actions is dumb. Often characters stand with filled charge bar for another 3-5 seconds and this makes timing attacks for chain bonus next to impossible. This doesnt make combat hard (final boss in particular is a joke compared to X's) but lack of polish is apparent.
X-2 reuses X's map with almost no changes. And this is definitely bad. "Hallway" design worked for linear X but feels cheap in a much more open structured X-2. Most locations could benefit a lot from expanding.
This version (just like X but there its just some extra optional bosses) includes features from previously Japan-only updates. In particular you can catch monsters and replace actual story characters with them. You can play the entire game moping everything with a behemoth in a dress (story characters will still be used in cutscenes). Seems like someone had too much time (and maybe some other things) to code random stuff.
But perhaps the most stupid thing about sequel is the fact that happy ending requires player to press a button during certain cutscenes while there is no prompt or immediately apparent reason to do so. You will 100% miss it without reading guides and by reading guides you will spoil it.

There is actually third game here titled X-2 Last Mission. It has completely different gameplay (roguelike with random floors). Im not sure why its even a thing and I havent enjoyed it even a bit. Its poorly balanced, way overstretched (80 floors will take aprox 10 hours) and adds nothing significant.

And finally there is 30 minutes long audio drama made just for this release that hints at X-3. Except X-3 is confirmed to not be in development and unlikely to ever be released. And without proper follow up it feels like a fanfic, not an official content, to my knowledge fans deciced to discard it as non-canon.

TL/DR:
FFX is a real gem. X-2 is weird but deserves to be given a chance. Other extras I wish didnt exist.

Pros:
Platinum and Yoko Taro collab, best of both worlds
Possibly the best OST ever
And finally (ahem..) it just works

Cons:
Will leave you with depression