PS4

Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage – (PS4) Review

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Continuing my look at the Kingdom Hearts franchise for the first time I’ve reached the infamously long-titled “Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-” which came exclusively with “Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue”. Being just a “fragmentary passage” it’s a short one, just the equivalent of a single world from a normal Kingdom Hearts game, it does fill in a little continuity gap before we head into the final chapter of this story arc with KH III though, which I’ll look at early next year. Let’s take an equally short look!

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Final Fantasy III – Pixel Remaster (PS4) Review

David Hogan2 Comments

Taking a bit of a break from RPGs series I’ve not played before with a return to the always fun Pixel Remasters. Final Fantasy III thankfully brought the series back to traditional levelling up systems and added in Jobs for the first time. Admittedly they also reintroduced nameless and personality-less protagonists and a more simplified story, but hey-ho, can’t get it all right, I guess! … Well, later entries will prove they can actually get it all right, but you know what I mean… Anyway, let’s take a look!

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Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4) Review

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The next “RPG series I’ve never played before but decided to give a go now I’m back into the genre” is the Tales Of series, starting with a lot of people’s favourite entry in Tales of Vesperia. It was interesting looking into which one to start with as the fanbase is actually quite split across a few different titles for a few different reasons, but in the end I went with Vesperia, if nothing else I thought it would make the two Project X Zone games make a little bit more sense when I get to them in the next year or two! After having played through the game I can say I really enjoyed myself, a few niggles here and there, most of which I hear were fixed in later titles, so… yeah. Let’s take a look!

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Final Fantasy II – Pixel Remaster (PS4) Review

David Hogan5 Comments

After enjoying gliding through the Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster a while ago (or a few weeks ago, review upload-wise) I decided to jump into its sequel as soon as another gap in my gaming appeared… without remembering that it was the often-cited “black sheep” of the series due to its really weird levelling up system. Well, the Pixel Remaster at least goes someway in remedying this issue but it’s still very wonky as a game. All that being said, it did introduce a lot of important stuff to the series, not least named characters and a slightly more layered plot (plus Chocobos!) so it’s not all bad. Let’s take a look!

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Final Fantasy I: Pixel Remaster (PS4) Review

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Kicking off this mini-marathon of “RPGs I’ve played recently” is one of the pioneers of the genre: Final Fantasy I. It’s a game I’ve always wanted to play through and tried several times but the old school grind without a story to motivate me led to me dropping it. Fast Forward to today (or, well, a while ago) and I finally brought the Pixel Remaster bundle of FF I – VI knowing that you can put an XP multiplier on in order to speed up a lot of the grind without necessarily “cheating” the game and wouldn’t you know it? I finally completed it. Now, I won’t go around saying I completed it legit, but it was pretty close, so what was it like as an experience in the mid 2020s?

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My Top 10 Games of 2025

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Last year I’d played so few that-year-released games that I had to put compilations and remakes all over the list, this year I’m happy to say there are no compilations and while entry #10 is two-thirds remaster it does have one-third entirely new game as well, so this is a much better look at games I’ve played in 2025 actually FROM 2025. I’m pretty sure Dynasty Warriors: Origins and Donkey Kong Bananza would’ve made it as well, but the former didn’t immediately appeal (due to going against what I like from DW games) and just hasn’t dropped in price all year and the other is a consequence on me only getting a Switch 2 for Christmas and only have so much free time! With that all said, let’s take a look!

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Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PS4) Review

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Resuming the on-and-off Kingdom Hearts first ever playthrough… thing, we reach Birth by Sleep, a game originally on the PSP but in terms of this review it also got a few “HD” console ports, which is handy. Set ten years before Kingdom Hearts I, the game features three protagonists each with their own story mode that intersect with each other, which was fun (reminded me of the Resident Evil 2 A/B scenarios) and the combat was great as well. Let’s see how it fairs overall though…

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Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix (PS4) Review

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After mistakenly playing the next game release-order-wise last time (thanks PS4 collection menu!) it’s finally time to tackle Kingdom Hearts II in this on-and-off marathon of my first time playing the series, and I was excited about this more than most because it’s often cited as the best one. Now obviously I still have three main games and two spin-offs to look at yet (not counting mobile titles, which I won’t be covering gameplay wise at least) so I can’t say “I agree!” but I did enjoy myself a lot, which can never be a bad thing… let’s take a closer look at the game then, nearly 20 years after its initial release (Coincidentally!)

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My Top 10 Games of 2024

David Hogan3 Comments

I knew going in that 2024 might be a bit more of a lean year game-wise, but thanks to games like Star Wars: Outlaws just disappointing me (to the point of an extremely rare giving up halfway through and selling it scenario) and the latest Assassin’s Creed game, normally good for an early Top 10 placement, getting delayed to next year it’s more lean than I’d imagined. Plus due to its length and having already played through a similarly-lengthy Atlus RPG a few months earlier I haven’t played Metaphor: Refantazio, nor have I played Astro Bot, two games that dominated most Top Games lists elsewhere. It’s so bad I’ve thrown in a few compilation re-releases to make up the Top 10, something I really didn’t want to do but a “Top 7” just sounds weird, so… Hey-ho. Also every game this year is either a sequel or a remake, so either I’m getting old and refusing to look into new things or the business has really gotten lazy… Either way, let’s take a look!

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Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (GBA) / Re:Chain of Memories (PS4) Review

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Going into my first ever play through of the Kingdom Hearts series I was warned about Chain of Memories and its remake, how even some of the biggest die hard fans of the series seem to flat-out hate it, well the gameplay at least. I thought to myself “well, I want to complete all of them for this review series, so I guess I’ll just grin and bear it” but, man… hate to say it, but I’m going to have to join the many and say I really disliked the gameplay here. I was just going to play the Re:CoM edition but struggled so I heard the GBA original was easier, and it was… to a point, but the core gameplay is just badly designed. I’m sure some who played it when they were young and “forced” themselves to get good at it because it was finally new Kingdom Hearts game will get angry at my review, but for me, now in 2024? This is not a fun experience…

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