I was once told I had expensive taste because I liked shopping at Express lol

It's giving

Building a time machine to 1982. I just want to talk.

Char's expression is making this piece for me lol

Oh, and I didn't mention how good the sound design is! Some of the best I've seen in a horror game. It knows just how to unsettle you and sell the horror of the world and monsters. Sound design is something I only notice when its bad or exceptional, this time the latter.

If I had to nitpick one thing, its that there's not a lot of enemy variety. Outside of bosses/minibosses, there are really just seven enemy types built on three different skeletons. But they never really feel like fodder (with one exception, when they should), and they continue to be threatening

I could ramble on for hours about how the game is great. I highly recommend fans of PS2 horror games pick it up and try a playthrough on Hard. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The gameplay has a very solid arc, where it starts out extremely simple, but options open up (particularly on subsequent playthroughs) that keep things interesting and give you options for many different playstyles.

I care about the characters--even the antagonists--and its heartwrenching to see what's happening to them. But its also no pity party. Hinako advocates for herself in a way that feels realistic but still heroic, regardless of what the outcome may be.

The storytelling is the game's highest point--it doesn't lead you by the hand through the narrative, but gives you pieces of the bugger picture which are easy to put together as you go along. Metaphor is used masterfully in a way that's subtle when first seen but hits like a hammer in retrospect

But while I was worried about the "soulslike" combat making the game less scary, it doesn't at all. In the first playthrough, combat is a struggle, comes at a cost, and rewards you with nothing except survival. And the game is genuinely scary. It has a great rhythm of tension and release, too.

Later playthroughs become more about the combat, but this dovetails with the games themes in an excellent way, as Hinako is becoming more empowered in an interpersonal sense, not just a physical one.

At first the game felt more like Siren than Silent Hill, but looking back at it, its still very true to its namesake, telling a story that's very in line with what came before but without rehashing the same ideas. Everyone who worked on this game clearly loves the series.

That said, I do recommend horror game fans play the game on "hard" instead of "story" (the default difficulty). Hard is a survival horror game in a way that story isn't--not just because of the difficulty, but because healing in story is unlimited.

I had never played Darkstalkers at this point but when I first jumped into MvC1 and saw Morrigan's wings turn into a jetpack she dashed she became an instant main

This game was my first ever impression of Oda (and all the other figures in the game) and everything I learn about him after I envision as being done by a flying man with a glowing purple sword