Tag: Review

• WrestleMania 41 Night 1: A Review

  Triple H had said people should shut off the critic in themselves. They should just view as a fan and soak it all in. Then, go ahead and write a 1 page essay about everything you liked about it. Consider what could’ve been better before you go off. The good news is that this would hypothetically be Page 1. The bad news is that, due to WrestleMania being a 2 night affair, I’ll have to write a 2nd page.

  The build between Jey and Gunther had been cooking, although the go-home Raw episode felt a tad dry. Regardless, the stage was set. My biggest issue this year was that the audience was misled. They believed that a Rumble winner would main event the PPV. They christened Jey as “Main Event Jey Uso” yet there he was opening the show. I haven’t witnessed this level of hype for a world title match in a while. It has been since WrestleMania 28. That was when Sheamus faced off against Daniel Bryan. Here we are and honestly, the match was underwhelming and for what it was, it ran too long. Gunther has more technical proficiency than what we saw and even Jey Use has shown growth as a performer. To see them not craft a 4 star match and just stick to the hits was underwhelming. I also found it absurd that Gunther tapped out so quickly. Jey wasn’t even squeezing like a boa constrictor.

  New Day vs. War Raiders was alright but it…was better off being a pre-show match as MCMG vs. Street Profits would’ve served as the better match. Nothing flashy although Ivar almost reducing New Day into pancakes was hilarious.

  Jade and Naomi had a good build and honestly, it was Jade’s best wrestling match to date. Naomi did great work with her and the match was neither too long or short. It was just right.

  Jacob Fatu vs. LA Knight was one helluva banger! This match was easily a top billing match. From the start, Knight demonstrated his prowess as our US Champ. By the end, Jacob proved to the world that in a post-Bloodline WWE, he is that guy!

  Once again, another match best for pre-show or just for TV…Grande Americano vs. Rey Fenix. Fenix losing upset me deeply. GA is a cringe gimmick. Unless there’s a long-term satisfying conclusion to that story, it’ll be a stain on Chad Gable’s career. It will reflect poorly on WWE toying with the cultural stigmas during this current presidency. I wanted GA to lose to Fenix. It would’ve given everyone in the arena a feel-good moment. That crap finish sucked the air out of the arena and you can see and feel it.

  Tiffany vs. Charlotte. I may or may not get heat for my take but…but this match felt like a clinic. I enjoyed it. I was concerned for Flair as her knee brace looked loose from the start. It felt like a technical wrestling match. While not perfect, it was an even back and forth. Eventually, once Charlotte’s head hit that middle turnbuckle, it was most definitely Tiffy Time! Jey had a lot of hype compared to Charlotte as a Rumble winner. They could have created a WrestleMania VIII moment with a double main event. Jey Gunther should’ve gone 2nd to last. Tiffany vs. Charlotte could’ve opened instead.

  Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns was absolute cinema from start to finish. Every move meant something. CM Punk’s debut package reflecting his journey, up to this moment, added to the weight of Punk main eventing. The drama regarding Paul Heyman, at the end was amazing. I wanted Roman to use the Guillotine Choke on someone. It had been a long time since I’d seen him use it an I missed seeing him use it. Seth executing Bret Hart’s Sharpshooter to absolute excellence was not in my bingo cards…and it made the moment look so good.

  04/22/2025

  las-vegas, pro wrestling, Review, ron322, wrestlemania, wrestlemania 41, wrestling, wwe

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• Persona 4 Golden: The One Many Love But I Don’t!

  In a post-Milton era in Tampa, I reflect on my blessings and practice gratitude. Throughout the hurricane, I had power as if nothing had happened. Strangely, I had a more intense experience with Hurricane Ian. During this time, I’ve been gradually working my way through Persona 4 Golden. However, the experience has ranged from indifference at best to frustration at worst.

  

  The premise and story isn’t the issue. I feel like it tells a good story overall. My 1st issue is the pacing. That first arc is a drag. The 2nd is how little there is to do at the start. It continues to be minimal when you approach The Long Fog period. After experiencing the stellar Persona 5 Royal, this game feels dated. Persona 3 Reload also sets high expectations, which make this entry seem lacking.

  Now the social commentary, predominantly with Kanji and Naoto, are possibly the strongest points you can have conversations about. Despite a game whose timeline is 2011-12, in 2024, the conversation can be more elaborate with everything we know today.

  As far as gameplay mechanics, in retrospect, still solid. The follow-up attacks vary from single hit, multi-target to even insta-kills. The tag team attacks, depending who’s in the party, is introduced here in a way that we can truly appreciate. It would open the door to the tag team follow-ups in P5R, as well as the Showtime attacks.

  I have one of the biggest gripes to this day about P4G. Some characters lack compatibility with their assigned Arcanas. Naoto doesn’t go with Fortune at all. Yosuke as Magician is surface-level at best. The Fox is a total waste of Hermit. Sayoko with Devil arcana chemistry falls off post-discussion of her scandal and gives more of a Hanged Man vibe. Ai is pitiful representing the Moon arcana. The Moon arcana would’ve served Naoki best. He is reserved, with emotions having him sink in like the very Cancer zodiac that arcana represents. The poor use of Arcana in respect to characters frustrated me to no end.

  I also found myself not truly enjoying the OST the way I did with Persona 3 or 5. Time to Make History is the only song I actually like while the rest of the soundtrack, while not forgettable, lack any sense of excitement. When the OST of a game isn’t all that exciting for me, it ruins the vibe.

  The themes of mystery and truth versus rumors are great. The concept of how it stares you in the face as your most suppressed self is also compelling. The execution is hindered by its harrowing slow pace. At times, you want to speed the process. There are moments where good dialogue would be best when excess points could be omitted. When narrowing down the main motives of the mystery murderer, only half of those points are worth addressing. The latter half of the estimates are very on the nose. I’ll go on to say that, like typical teenagers, the common sense isn’t there. SEES in Persona 3 seem distant, but they are in sync in their saga’s matters. Persona 5’s Phantom Thieves weaponize their trauma bonding. They save the world in defiance of the Demiurge. Persona 4’s Investigation Team are quickly close to each other like real friends. However, they remain far from the truth that stares at them.

  As for other enjoyable elements of the game’s story, look no further than every member’s Persona being a Japanese deity. Then add their school’s name symbolizing 10 gods. The White Hare of Inaba by Cheryl Hamada is said to inspire Persona 4. I appreciate how Yu, our protagonist, arrives in town with Izanagi as his Persona. The final enemy is Izanagi’s sister-wife, Izanami. She’s been there the whole time, manipulating all the madness that the town of Inaba suffers. I also enjoyed a parallel in Persona 4 with an unlikely and unrelated story. It parallels Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable by Hirohiko Araki. They have the same yellow motif for its setting in a small town. Both involve a protagonist with a mighty being as its avatar of power. They both carry the element of mysterious murders, with its antagonist being around them the entire time.

  Do I believe Persona 4 Golden is due for a remake like Persona 3 did? Yes! There are many holes that could be filled in retrospect. It could also make its NG+ cycle as good as P5R or P3R. Is the game bad? By no means! I just believe that, compared to its remade predecessor and its sequel, it hasn’t ages well and lacks balance. If it were me, I’d definitely rearrange some of the characters and their arcana story arcs. It would give a sense of congruence to them. In turn, it would enhance the meta aspect of the story. The lore would weave together more seamlessly. Even with a NG+ cycle, maxing out every Social Link in one playthrough is nearly impossible. I also find that it’s very challenging. That’s an issue P3 and P5 don’t have.

  I hope you guys all enjoyed this review of my experience with the game. Eventually, my NG+ playthrough will be complete with a playlist, timestamps included, to facilitate the experience.

  10/12/2024

  atlus, cherylhamada, deities, divination, folklore, japanese, jojosbizarreadventure, major-arcana, minor-arcana, persona4golden, playstation, Review, ron322, sega, spirituality, tarot, whitehareofinaba

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• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review & Thoughts!

  Welcome back 322 Crew. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve been on the site to write a blog. I’m just recovering from Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and there is much to cover. I may even turn this into a video essay at some point. I’ll even go to say that the experience with this game, with the DLC attached, has enriched my sense of enjoyment to where I am ready to resume writing FireFrei from a fresh sense of engagement.

  Unlike many players, I didn’t go into Shadow of the Erdtree straight away but instead chose to go for the full game experience — main story and DLC. Depending on the pace of story revelations, I’d determine when and if I should step out of the Realm of Shadows and return. It would also determine how my full journey of Elden Ring would conclude. Sure enough, I’m glad I engaged with this approach, despite it resulting in me entering NG+2 — which meant even the base game enemies/bosses would be stronger, have a bit more health, and thus result in the fights being tougher, while also having the DLC itself be harder than in your 1st game cycle or in NG+. Let it be known that there are players who have gone into it at NG+7 (and wondering why they’re crying about difficulty).

  Usually as per Fromsoftware tradition, the DLC is usually a step up from the base game. Usually, just a meager double digit in hours, single digit if you’re just trying to speed run to main bosses and resist all forms of OCD. Shadow of the Erdtree, however, is a whole game masquerading as a DLC. $40 basically gave you, if a completionist, a near 30-40 hour experience. 55 bosses and 10 of them with Remembrances. Bear in mind that base game of Elden Ring had 200+ bosses and 15 of them with Remembrances. If you ask me, the DLC chose quality over quantity. Instead of the intensity and difficulty of bosses being just based on mid to late game of the base game with a hair of edge, Shadow of the Erdtree cranked it up to where difficulty can be, without use of Scadutree or Revered Spirit Ash Blessing upgrades, very well beyond even the endgame of base game. The human-sized bosses were fairly easy if you used the right weapons and spells to knock them on their ass or create distance but as for the bigger ones as well as Remembrance bosses, you better level up those blessings or else be prepared to Try Finger But Hole.

  How you navigate the world also determines which bosses come off more difficult than others but if I had to recommend where to start to where things crank up it’s the following order — Divine Beast Dancing Lion is a great intro to both brushing up on your skills as Tarnished/Elden Lord/Lord of Chaos but also gives an understanding of how things will escalate compared to what you may have expected. Rellana is where you are boldly reminded as to how tough thing will get as her rhythm is somewhere akin to Sulyvahn & Abyss Watchers (Dark Souls 3), Malenia from the base game and with a sprinkle of Lady Maria (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters). You better learn to move and react on your toes as she is aggressive. If you have Leda summoned along w/a spirit ash of choice, divide and conquer is key in order to survive. Messmer is where boss battle design is truly peak and most definitely where the thrill truly sets in as it’s almost at times akin to fighting Ken from Street Fighter with absolute rage (he has a long chain fire combo reminiscent of Ken’s Jinrai Shippu Kyaku from SFA3). Even his phase 2 requires you to be very quick on your feet, even if you have Hornsent, Mimic Tear and possibly Jolán (if you did most of the Ymir quest line) to aid with a divide and conquer strategy.

  Where difficulty finally reaches its apex is of course, the Promised Consort of Miquella. Some have complained about him being totally unfair in difficulty but to me, I expected no less from him. If you’re facing a Promised Consort of Miquella and Miquella is especially aligned with him in phase 2, had Fromsoftware nerfed him in any magnitude, I would’ve been upset. Yes, he’s brutal in strength and brings on his Goku mode of Instant Transmission in phase 2 but… but he’s not blinding in terms of pattern to learn in order to better endure and prevail. He’s difficult but not impossible. If you can consistently take the fight into phase 2, let alone to where he’s down to only 25% of health remaining, it’s never a matter of if but when! Then once victory happens, the sense of ecstasy is intoxicating. It didn’t feel like a relief but rather a true sense of triumph. It doesn’t matter if you soloed him, summoned a friend (which cranks the boss’ HP by 60%), used a spirit ash and/or summoned Ansbach with/without Thiolier, a win is a win. Goku never soloed a single baddie in DBZ or Super since Vegeta and so you shouldn’t feel ashamed for using every tool in your disposal that the game has for use. In my opinion, if the game has it as something in your toolset, it’s fair.

  As far as the lore and story within Shadow of the Erdtree, a part of me wants to believe that there’s a surprise DLC in the future or even a sequel because there are more questions raised with the revelations we’re given but in the same process, it also added context to things we weren’t sure about while also adding pieces to put together the puzzle of Elden Ring‘s rich lore. Between Messmer & Melina implied as siblings being the eldest of Marika’s offspring, Talisman of Lord’s Bestowal w/an image of Godfrey accepting grace stoically found within Shadow Keep (Messmer’s Castle) and Malekith’s Remembrance in base game stating he was betrayed by Marika…a certain picture starts being pieced together. The map of the Realm of Shadow also has regions that tend to resemble the vibe of specific regions of the Lands Between. If you hyper fixate on piecing the story of Elden Ring’s lore together by yourself, you will lose more sleep than Qualaag.

  One thing that St. Trina states when you have dialogue from her in the story, “Godhood would be Miquella’s prison” echoes knowledge she has regarding Marika, especially with how we found Marika in the endgame of base game — cursed from ever having children that aren’t afflicted (I now question Godwyn being golden as I suspect he was afflicted but something the story won’t tell us yet implicates to us very subtle in nature), forced to be at the whims of an Order that answers to Fingers whom has archaic messages from a Mother whose messages are winging it as the Greater Will hasn’t spoken to Metyr in quite some time. Miquella has a track record of constantly attempting high ambitions but ultimately failing, and for him to usher an Age of Compassion with a Consort who revels in endless war and whose soul is captured in the body of a brother whose body was an Omen demigod. His rule as a new god of all the Lands would eventually fail, no matter how many of the populace he enchants.

  A story like this in a beautiful game inspired me to write and create again. If you’ve been on the fence, go get it. If you enjoyed reading my review, feel free to share your experience. I will continue writing soon.

  07/29/2024

  Bandainamco, creativity, difficulty, eldenring, experience, FromSoftware, Gaming, lore, playstation, Review, ron322, shadowoftheerdtree

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