2022 Mini-Review MEGA CUT Compilation

[@thatonekarissa]

mert famous for earning the platinum trophy of my heart

[@thatonekarissa]

i think this is my best work so far tbh

[@Levi-jz5rv]

@@thatonekarissa I agree 💜

[@MertKayKay]

Don't I'm SWOONING

[@thatonekarissa]

@@MertKayKay oh please *tucks buzzed hair cutely*

[@lightaflamethrower8573]

I said “awe!” out loud when I read this. Well done my friend, you have made today better.

[@simontheblind8417]

You have the best sense of humor. Thank you for this video. As always, your reviews are in-depth and insightful, and your scoring system makes a lot more sense than most.

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks Simon! Yeah I HATE rating systems that are basically 7-10. We need DEPTH

[@simonholmes6473]

@@MertKayKay Agreed. I rememeber when Jim Stephanie Sterling gave Breath of the Wild 7 out of 10 because they thought it was fine and everyone acted like JSS had shat in their shoes.

[@Levi-jz5rv]

Hey, thanks for an amazing year! You and your community have hands down been a highlight for me this year! Cheers to another year of good times and great content!! 🍻 🥳

[@thatonekarissa]

amen and hallelujah

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you for being here Levy, I mean that so much 😁 have really appreciated you! (Also I hope the golf with your friends night wasn't too chaotic!)

[@Levi-jz5rv]

@MertKayKay Hey I'm just happy to be here. It was a great time from what I got to see! Sorry I couldn't join, it was the middle of the work day here in the states 🇱🇷.

[@MissingCollectible]

Over two and a half hours!? What a treat!

[@MertKayKay]

A Treat for PETE

[@ddjsoyenby]

she gave us a great gift.

[@dianamerchant1026]

I think my favorite part of your videos is having them play in the background and randomly hearing my husband snort at a joke. Your sense of humor is as awesome as your game reviews. Ty for all of your hard work😊

[@MertKayKay]

I love when partners linger on the peripherals of a KZbin video and randomly start laughing at jokes - that's super high praise! Thanks so much for watching Diana :D

[@makiroll218]

I sew while I listen and watch and I’m like, found another KZbinr that I instantly subscribed to and am now binge watching

[@emilycrow8278]

I've never heard of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, but the phenomena of how stories evolve through time and culture is one of those little things in life that makes me really enjoy being alive. Like, that fuzzy chest feeling you get when we used to look up at stars and imagine all the infinite possibilities of adventures that can totally happen... and not all die from the mundanity attached to adulthood. I have no idea what I wanted to say with this comment anymore. Anyway, yeah, that game looks neat.

[@MertKayKay]

What sage and beautiful words from a Sentient Waffle, thank you for sharing

[@crowwithashortcake]

1:53:20 honestly i didnt mind mr x at all lol, i feel like he walks slowly enough that hes really easy to outmaneuver. by the middle of my second playthrough he became like a fun companion buddy for me.

[@definitelyhooman7939]

Thanks for a great year of content! I only found your channel this year, but I've just fallen in love with your style and humour. I agree with some of your mini-reviews, completely disagree with others, but at the end of the day, you always have such a fascinating way of articulating your critiques and it's always a joy to watch. Have a lovely holiday, and happy new year! :)

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thanks as always Steph! I always appreciate you appearing in my comment section and I love that we can just have healthy chats even when we entirely disagree B) you are spectacular. Happy New Year!

[@pact-md5wp]

I highly recommend reading the story behind the development of "where the water tastes like wine". Its honestly heart breaking.

[@MertKayKay]

Oh no this will destroy me

[@amharbinger]

Great video as always and yes, cheesy garlic bread is the food of the Gods.

[@MertKayKay]

There's nothing better!

[@dreamerkitten6683]

love ur content so much mert! as always, u have me laughing my head off with ur unreal humour. adding in the viewer comments was a great idea, the “you’re a female” one took me out. i hope u have a fab new year!

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thank you Dreamer! Really glad you like it, and if you enjoyed the comment showcase there is PLENTY more where that came from. Have a fantastic New Year!

[@markm5927]

I completely agree on your point on the ending of the Last of Us, never seen someone else say that, although I could be missing it. I finished it feeling like the ending was kind of tragic, an unavoidable clash of wills, both acting seflishly and selflessly at once. Then Part 2 goes out of its way to present the Fireflies as good people, Joel never mentions how his hand was forced. It retroactively makes the ending less interesting to me. It's nice to see someone else mention it without resorting to 'X good, Y bad' stuff. I'll have to watch your other videos!

[@grayrainbow100]

A testament to your ability to entertain and make interesting videos, 90% of the games discussed here I have not nor will I ever play (not for lack of wanting to, I just don't have the means) and yet I will happily sit here and enjoy your hilarious quips as well as genuinely intriguing commentary for 2.5 hours. Great stuff, keep it up :)

[@MertKayKay]

Greater praise I have never heard, thank you Joe! Really happy you enjoyed the video!

[@CarlolucaS]

Why didn't I cancel the pre-order? I ask myself that every single day with No Man's Scam. I can probably write a desertation on how New Mean Scum made the game's industry as a whole worse for everyone and the "redemption" of that game is less than meaningless. Happy for the people that are having fun with it now but Nude Moe Skank plays a big part in the whole "realease broken shit and fix later" model right now.

[@MertKayKay]

YES! Although it's apparently good now (can't confirm, not tried it), it absolutely paved the way for releasing broken crap to be 'fixed later'

[@ard4461]

I really appreciate that you are totally honest in your reviews. I feel like a lot of reviewers will just go along with the crowd and ignore things they didn't like about about a popular game because they don't want to look like they have "bad tastes". People act like certain games are just objectively good and you're a troglodyte if you didn't enjoy them. But these are pretty complex interactive experiences here, there's going to be a lot of different reactions and takeaways.

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thank you Anna! And yeah I can be a mega normie sometimes with my mainstream opinions, but I don't mind being honest when needed ;) Glad you like the reviews!

[@masonloc]

It’s a testament to your writing and delivery that I’ll hear some of these reviews for the second time and still have a giggle at some of the dry, out of left field bits of humour while generally balanced with a nice and concise idea of the game in question, even if I don’t always agree with your take on a specific thing. I also thing it’s really cool that you actually write guides for games too! Gotta appreciate the people making the guides we all use. Good work and I look forward to next year! Happy early birthday too!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much Mason! :D So flattered that you like my humour and SUPER flattered that you like my reviews despite disagreements here and there. Have an amazing New Year!

[@anxiousrecord7751]

honestly hate comments are so bizarre to me. Like of you hate something that much just dislike it! theirs just no reason to say you don't like something in a KZbin comments, like why?

[@coltonwilkie241]

A lot of reviews and opinions I've seen of Stray have pretty much all been don't recommend, but I got it anyways on a sale. I think it's pretty charming, just not special. My favourite things are the robots face screens turning into hearts when you rub up to them and the robot with the gas can guitar that you deliver the music notes to. The world is also quite nice. Maybe a sequel can expand on things that don't work with the things that do. Maybe stick a laser beam on the cat's head so they can fight back.

[@MertKayKay]

Aww yes I know what you mean! There's a lot of charm in the game and the robots are very cute :D I agree: Charming but not special

[@ivanpetrov5255]

CSD reminds me of the old time management games like Cake Mania and others, from Big Fish Games. Those were fun to play. There was one about making coffee. Maybe these early experiences are the reason why I love {whatever} Simulator games so much.

[@josephine-rt6jw]

your channel is such a source of positivity and fun in my mind, so seeing those comments between reviews made me remember how awful the online gaming community can be lol

[@MertKayKay]

Haha the gaming community is a trial by fire! But they do make for funny screenshots and good conversation :D

[@Maiscribbles]

Okami is a game that I have probably played from beginning to end like... five times? It's one of my favorite videogames of all time. Thank you for the 2-hour video!! I love how you're able to explain your opinions and assessments of a game. Have a happy new year!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Mai! Okami is absolutely astounding. I adore it, and I love that you've played it so much too! I recommend it to everyone. Thank you so much for watching and have an amazing New Year!

[@qew_Nemo]

Happy Birthday KayKay! Thank you for all the funny and witty jokes in all of your content! And the less funny and less witty ones too. They're... somewhat appreciated. I'm willing to tolerate them because it's your birthday is what I'm saying.

[@MertKayKay]

Hahaha you're very kind Nemo ;) Thank you and happy new year!

[@notyaunzzz]

this was such a treat and i'm so thankful you had the support of your patrons throughout the year who enabled you to not only make this content for yourself and them, but also to be able to release it to non-patrons as well in long form videos like this! finances are always tight for me, so when my favorite youtubers put content behind patron i get bummed, but it's understandable because they deserve the financial support and if the way to get further financial support is to gate content behind a small paywall, then that's their incentive and i'll ofc continue to support them in the ways i can that don't cost money. but i think you're one of the first content producers i really enjoy who has used this system of rather than fully paywalling content it is instead time-gated content, and i think it's great. patron supporters can get the content as you create it for any amount theyre comfortable pledging and financially support your work, and non patron supporters can access that content at a later time alongside patron supporters who can rewatch all of the content they financially supported in one long video a while later when they may have forgotten some of the content discussed and can pretty much get a refresh of what they previously enjoyed! i really think it's genius, and im genuinely so thankful for your content (and your patron supporters, lol) this year! i really look forward to what you'll do in 2023, i hope you stay warm and safe this winter season, and happy new year!

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thank you Savannah! I completely understand. 😁😁 My Patreon is a very lucky addition to my channel but certainly not the backbone - I couldn't imagine keeping content off KZbin. Really happy you like my videos!

[@NotBigfoot]

Well, I was going to study Japanese while working, but I GUESS I'll watch a 2 1/2 hour video compilation of video game reviews. Hell 👏 yes. 👏

[@MertKayKay]

WOOO how is Japanese going? I studied it at school and loved it. Kanji beat my ass though :(

[@NotBigfoot]

Kanji is beating my ass haha. Also, sentence structure is difficult to wrap my head around. 🙃 It's so much fun to learn, though!

[@jacob99503]

Have you played Tunic? I haven't seen a video about it on your channel but I just got it a few days ago and I'm in love. I'd describe it as Dark Souls meet Zelda, but not the difficulty of Dark Souls, just the mechanics.

[@MertKayKay]

I've been really keen to try Tunic! It looks right up my alley :D How long does it take to finish, do you know?

[@jacob99503]

@@MertKayKay I've played it for a 8ish hours over the last few days and it feels like I've barely scratched the surface, but because of how much is exploration-based I'm already thinking of doing a second playthrough to see how much the beginning changes when you know what you're doing. I think the drip-feed of information is done really well and would be really hard to pull off again.

[@SkullPlaysDestiny]

The thing with cuphead is that I can vividly remember every single fight in that game and each phase because of how much detail was put into each fight, that's what made me love it.

[@mischa3343]

I like how you preemptively address negative comments even though the majority of comments are people saying they love you and your content. I can definitely relate though. Love all your work and your honest takes!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Mischa! I struggle to balance what to show comment-wise or know what would be fun to hear about. Suggestions are definitely welcome! :D

[@mischa3343]

@@MertKayKay Haha na it's all good! You balanced it well, I found the comments you showcased pretty funny. I don't think showcasing all positive comments wouldve been nearly as funny, and making videos about games will always open you up to occasionally unsavoury comments. I guess all I meant was that the large majority of your audience love you no matter what you do, and to not give those other comments much attention, but it seems like youre doing well at ignoring those kinds of comments anyway so keep doing what youre doing and enjoy the youtuber life despite the nonsense you put up with.

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much Mischa, I appreciate it :D

[@Mokai]

Your script writing is top notch; I love all the quick little jokes that come flying in out of nowhere and absolutely destroy me. Glad I've stumbled upon this channel!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Mokai! 🥰 It's awesome to have you here

[@fredwupkensoppel8949]

Happy Birthday! Edit: Oh, it's early.

[@Levi-jz5rv]

Well, if she waits a few days to read this...

[@fredwupkensoppel8949]

@@Levi-jz5rv Nope, already received a heart. Tooooo late.

[@Levi-jz5rv]

@@fredwupkensoppel8949 Darn

[@MertKayKay]

I'll read it again on my birthday ;)

[@DastyDan]

Opinions? In your reviews?! Almost like that's how it should be and anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't understand how the world works :D

[@MertKayKay]

Oh Dan you're a good one :'( never change!

[@uncrackedegg9638]

Thanks for the amazing content ❤️. I absolutely love a channel I can put on in the background for hours while I draw, and your stuff slides right in next to jacob geller and folding ideas for me. Cheers to a good year. Also, I'd love to hear thoughts on outer wilds and darkwood.

[@ecksdee8129]

Just when I was bored out of my fucking mind, searching for anything to engage my ADHD-raddled brain… 2.5 hours of MertKayKay mini reviews. It’s like a macro-microdose of my stimulant medication. God bless ye

[@MertKayKay]

I hope you enjoy it!! :D

[@Disthron]

*Cup Head* What you experienced with CupHead is basically what I experience with all boss fights and difficulty spikes in games. I've never experienced that adulation when finishing a boss or a hard part. To me, a boss fight is when the game puts you on hold for several hours until you can get back to the fun part.

[@Blargenhousen]

Mert has the most legendary banter

[@MertKayKay]

Haha thank you Frank!

[@BOSSLYninja]

Fully up to date on the KZbin stuff finally! Patreon is on my goal list, but I’m currently broke af. Just wanted to throw in my two cents on your videos for whatever it may be worth. The biggest critique I could offer would be to include video directly corresponding to talking points more often. When you are talking about a specific character’s design, a mechanic in a game, or a specific story beat, I think it could help to illustrate the point a bit more if the specific thing you are focused on is shown while you talk about it. Not that you don’t ever include it, but there are times when you’ll bring up a particular game mechanic (like the grayed out button prompt in stray) with unrelated gameplay segments as the visual. And that’s really the only thing I’ve seen that you haven’t naturally refined or changed over the course of your uploads. You have a great writing voice and narration voice, you write your jokes incredibly well, you have a solid understanding of everything you present, and you present honest feedback with good reasoning. Excellent work so far, and super excited to see where your channel goes!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Ninja! I completely agree; I have taken a /few/ steps (as you noticed) towards showing the relevant clips online, but darn if I'm not the laziest editor ever. I really do need to be doing it more consistently, and you're not the only one who's noticed either! Thanks for the feedback. As for Patreon, don't worry ;) Nothing is Patreon-locked forever, all the content eventually ends up on KZbin so if it's not something you can afford, it's no worries at all. And I'm still active here so I'll be able to reply as often as I can! Thanks for watching my stuff Ninja, really appreciate you!

[@Genasidal]

Farm Management. As someone who has an unnaturally unhealthy obsession with specifically Golf games, for absolutely no reason I can call "logical", I fucking adore Golf With Your Friends. That game has no right being so perfect, I swear! It's gotten that bad that the two memes in my personal friend group that are basically the same thing are comments about either my obsession with Golf games or games being judged soley on whether they feature a often ridiculously bare bones fishing minigame or not. A bad game with a fishing minigame immediately becomes better, just because it has a stupid fishing minigame in it (looking at you Stardew Valley). Just reread this and realised this looks like I hate Stardew Valley, which, unfortunately for my many, MANY hours bled into it, would be completely false for me to say 💀. Love that game way too much - gave me "Animal Crossing Syndrome" all over again (the "why can't I stop playing?!!!!" type of sensation)

[@MertKayKay]

You and I are birds of a feather, I love golf games and fishing minigames! In Overwatch there are modded lobbies you can hop into while you queue and I play Bastion Fishing, it is a load of crap but I love it so much!

[@Genasidal]

@@MertKayKay WHAT?! FISHING IN OVERW-- I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS A THING! As someone who's never liked Overwatch, I'd unironically download it just for that 😂

[@raspberrycyanide]

I recently rediscovered your channel through your "Everybody's Gone To The Rapture" video after having seen the Rachel Foster one a while back when it first released and I gotta say I love your content. Also, I always have called outlast a "haunted house simulator game". It is simultaneously one of my favorite horror games and one I will never play again because I just can't with the jumpscares and the peering through the night vision camera keeping myself on edge

[@MertKayKay]

Aww I'm flattered to have you back Raspberry! :D I'm glad we share similar Outlast opinions. Thank you for watching

[@codeearth9820]

Awesome video to end the year, love your sense of humour, and I'm glad that Hades grew on you. Also, happy birthday in advance!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Code Earth!! I'm really glad too, I felt like something was wrong with me!

[@omnipian]

It's always nice hearing an honest opinion of a game that you may not have thought of yourself and it's a shame to hear/see the negative comments people can make just because it's not the way they feel about a game, I hope the positives outweigh the negatives as your content is really entertaining

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Omni! Absolutely they do, I love making stuff :D

[@dailup]

Cuphead. I wanted so much to like that game, the art style, gameplay, boss designs were great. But for some reason I just couldn't get into it, I made it 50% of the way and just couldn't bring myself to go any further. You nailed what I couldn't put my finger on. Structure.

[@MertKayKay]

I'm so glad it wasn't just me! I felt like an ungrateful fool. It really never gelled with me

[@FreelanceSeven]

Of all the games I played this year, one that really rose to the top of my favorites list is SIGNALIS. It'd be great to see you take a look at it whenever you can!

[@MertKayKay]

I just finished Signalis last week and I ADORED it. I do have an aim to look at it but in a larger video where I'll compare it to a game with similar themes that I hated 🥲

[@felipebisi4145]

Humm.... I played some of those the last years Hades i enjoyed but the runs lacked a bit of variation i was damn tired of fighting the Hydra in every single run Cuphead i just suck in plataforming in general another reason i will probably never do the Pantheon of the gods in Hollow Knight Overwatch i played for 1 or 2 hours sincerely i felt like a Counter Strike with powers what wasnt bad in theory until having matches 4x4 or 5x5 and you either play maps with objectives and someone use a ultimate and kill everybody or simply the game turns into a hide and seek and someone uses a ultimate I dont think Okami is a JRPG it is more to the action game like DMC and etc at the time it has the tropes of Japan i still also love it but again the annoying flea man was a way to make Amaterasu talk same with Raidou and Gotou on SMT considering Atlus love the silent but useless MC(With Byleth and Nioh 2 MC being the last straw to me on the silent MC).....but i digress they are being mostly a tool to giving voice to a voiceless MC considering early 2000's and always the Horde in waves fights..... a bit of hand holding is a small annoyance to me. RE2R....you sure about that i mean RE3R plays almost the same except yes Mr. X is a crappy chaser and between a annoying to deadly chaser the difference can be massive but i don't think the game changes much to consider such a massive difference in like and dislike....

[@RotalHenricsson]

At first i was surprised when the RE2 segment started but hearing you enjoyed 7 and 8 made more sense. Generally feels like most people who enjoy the older REs don't like 7 and 8 (i know i don't; i understand they're objectively good horror games but piss poor Resident Evils) and it's seemingly the same the other way around. A huge part of 2's appeal is seeing it all remade if you've already been a fan of the original. Funnily enough: Mr. X is essentially doing what Nemesis was supposed to do but 3's remake was outsourced and cut down heavily compared to the original so Nemesis was reduced to a handful of scripted segments. Which was a shame but honestly? I love 2 Remake to death but i agree on just about everything about Mr. X. He's annoying as fuck. Him and the bullet sponge zombies were my biggest problems with it. Still love it though.

[@prettyevil6662000]

"I pre-ordered cyberpunk 2077." Oh, you poor thing. My deepest condolences.

[@MertKayKay]

:O Folding Ideas is one of my favourite KZbinrs! I listen to his stuff all the time. What an honour to be viewed alongside him. Thank you so much for watching Egg, have an amazing new year. And I do really need to get around to Outer Wilds and Darkwood >.< I own both of them!

[@thomascking]

Lmao, "I love rice, that doesn't mean I can't have a palate".

[@granola-approach]

nice little reviews, its neat you can review them without having to have enough to see to stretch out for a full length video. look forward to the next one. and just because of the gris one and you said there's debate on the stages of grief heres a fun fact i learned in my death and dying class a while back: those stages are terrible for people who are grieving someone/thing else, it just varies too much person to person to be useful. That's not what they're for, though, they were developed from observation of people who were grieving /themselves/ after finding out they were going to die, and in that sense, they're spot on. anyway i dont know if gris really interacts with them in this way, but if it doesnt i find that interesting. I'm sure the developers poured their experience into this, but those five stages used for people who are grieving without dying always seemed like a pop culture concept moreso than something anyone really relates to, but i suppose i could be wrong, the topic doesnt come up much in daily conversation, even though i could go on for another sixteen paragraphs but "this dirty slut apple" is definitely going to crop up in my daily conversations

[@PrimalCyborg]

I love Far Cry 4 and 5 but I'm biased, it's mostly because I love making my own levels with enemy A.I. to play against and those are the two Far Cry Games that allow this type of custom level (in arcade mode). I always hate the common presence of magic in a shooter game that comes up in a lot of Far Cry games but most parts of these two games are pretty fun to play and, while I liked Far Cry 5 segregating that part of the gameplay to one section of the map, it was a big part of the map and seems like it wound up being a bigger part of the game than in Far Cry 4. A lot of the magic seems to be chalked up to hallucinations which are still annoying but then there's parts that are inexplicable without magic and I find that to be both out of place and lazy. On the plus side there's quite a lot you can do with the level editor and that's why Far Cry will always be one of my favorite series' even though Far Cry 6 doesn't have this feature and I have no ambition to even try it. When it comes to story mode my favorite of the series is Primal although I'll gripe about this one too... the gameplay is fun and, for any regular player of the series, easy enough to need to apply extra difficulty modifiers just to feel challenged for most of the gameplay. Bosses on the other hand (at least the Izila character you add to your tribe by beating him at the Izila fort) outright cheat very obviously unless you choose an easy difficulty rating. I tried several times to beat him on a hard setting and, when I got him down to a sliver of health much smaller than the damage I'd noticed my spear throw attacked did no matter where I hit him, I hit him with a spear throw attack to the head and saw the spear stick into his head and not drop his health at all to which he responded by attacking and killing me before it registered in my brain that the attack that would have definitely killed him didn't kill him. That was frustrating. Oh, and Far Cry 5 missed a HUGE opportunity by leaving a number of animal species out of the level editor and leaving out all the alpha animals found in the story mode from the level editor even though they would have been perfect for the bounty hunt level objective as it would give a reason to make one particular animal of a species the hunting target. Also, if you want to try the level editor then don't get it for the Xbox One since the water layers don't work right on that console. The visible edge of the water's surface ends before the edge of the water layer so if you make a water fall then you can swim in they air for about a meter or two past where the water falls over the cliff. If you line up the swimmable area then the visible water surface just ends before reaching the cliff. Also every version of the game has white tail deer and pronghorn in the story mode but only pronghorns labeled as white tail deer in the level editor. If they'd done justice to the campaign mode animals in the level editor then the bounty hunt game mode could have been like a modernized version of early Cabela's hunting games from the PS2 but with custom levels which might have been my favorite thing ever. It's just a huge missed opportunity and I suspect it was for the same reason they didn't bother with a level editor for Far Cry 6: who's gonna keep buying new Far Cry games loaded with magic if you can have more fun than any Far Cry story provides by just making your own levels in an older Far Cry game with comparable abilities and graphics? I honestly didn't expect that comment to be so long, sorry to anyone who allowed themself to be subjected to it. 😋 I got me some opinions.

[@thatonekarissa]

god gee whiz look at this video from this person who has 100% correct opinions mert i’m in love w u

[@ulysseschang129]

Nah I don't think pre-ordering Cyberpunk 2077 is such a trauma. It should come just *slightly* less devastating than breaking up with your partner, not more.

[@mangs856]

Yeah, that comment at 9:50 gets a big ol' "yikes" from me. I've never seen a flag so red I thought, "well that's just GOT to be satire or, like, a joke flag. Who would put such a red flag out there for everyone to see? No way that's for real." *sigh*

[@houyo]

Oh my god reminds me of my favorite moment from the Resident Evil 2 Remake (I have not played it). So I will share a story now. I am a massive pussy. Like, absolute coward. But also I am a gamer, and I love Resident Evil. My little brother used to watch me play it and we would both freak out. When the 2 Remake comes out he buys it and wants me to watch HIM play it now as a throw back to when he used to watch me. He was, like you were, also terrified of WHEN Mr. X would show up. He kept asking me if he's about to show up and using my very vague memories of the original RE2 I would say 'no he doesn't show up until after the helicopter crashes'. So we get to the roof and noticed that there's a crashed helicopter and I'm like. "Huh... Is that a crashed helicopter?" and I'm confused and he starts to freak out. I assure him that we see him crash into the building out of the sky and that hasn't happened yet. I also am sure to note that I have no idea if they've changed things, which does not reassure him. He goes through a door into a hallway and as he turns the corner only to see Mr. X shove the debris out of the way with no fanfare, sending him into complete panic. Man, I love video games.

[@superbad8008]

2:47 I haven’t even gotten five minute into the video, but this shirt is amazing. Edit: A worrying amount of incels comment on these videos. I don’t know how The Quartering’s comment section broke containment, but they need to be recaptured soon.

[@CaptainVincentRiley]

My god, those comparisons of yours are a true work of art. I really enjoy your content, thanks for a very entertaining year. Resi 2 is the one thing where I strongly disagree, but I admit that Mr. X does get pretty annoying over time :D

[@suuuki7962]

I really wanted to love Stray but it turned out to be just 'okay'. Not to say that the game didn't have any interesting concepts, but if we weren't playing as a cyberpunk cat I don't think I'd have given it a 2nd look

[@atab6555]

I beg you please please play battle chef brigade,its fantastic,short and cheap

[@MertKayKay]

Chef? I love cooking games!

[@CourierSixGaming]

Me watching the Assassin's Creed: Valhalla portion; "Yeah, there's probably a reason I basically don't remember any of the Assassin's Creed games."

[@1GTX1]

I loved Stray, it's more of an experience than a game like SOMA, Outlast, Life is Strange, although not as good..

[@fluffylogic1]

Nice one Mert, and happy birthday for Saturday!!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Dave! Happy New Year!

[@Hugo_Tate]

The absolutely poo ways I'd get my shit clapped lmao I constructed a little fence in front of his tent 😂😂😂 1:48:46

[@screams6157]

I really enjoy your video essay style videos, and I am not the type for trophy hunting but your humour and style of conveying information is just *so* good I have been binging all of the videos I normally wouldn't.

[@MertKayKay]

This is an amazing compliment, thank you Screams 😭

[@KingRidley]

I can not imagine why people wanted to see these spotlight comments. I just don't find it fun to laugh at most of them, and I'm sorry you deal with them.

[@BushidoCypher]

I just had a feeling today was going to be a good day 😃

[@MertKayKay]

"It's a fine day with you around" - my Skyrim spouse after I married them and their dialogue suddenly got really generic and boring

[@habadasheryjones]

That TWD season 2 commenter was probably a Kenny apologist. I'd be defensive too if I related to terrible characters.

[@AtreyusNinja]

Happy early birthday 🥰

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Atreyus! :D

[@ktktktktktktkt]

I thought Stray was overrated and just pandering to people who like cats. Could not get into it at all.

[@yukitty_writes]

another long video! (everybody cheered) also happy belated birthday!

[@catchyalata777]

I feel much better after sticking my head in the toilet! Thank you for the suggestion 😊

[@MertKayKay]

It keeps me very fresh, glad it helped you!

[@catchyalata777]

@@MertKayKay also, good GOD those comments from the showcase are awful

[@EannieMay]

I got irrationally happy when you mentioned Stephanie Harlowe. She (and Derrick) is my favourite true crime podcast creator ♡

[@MertKayKay]

SAME! :D I love Crime Weekly! Every time I drive the 6 hour round trip to see my parents I listen to them the whole way. Their relationship is so adorably sibling-y. Always awesome to meet a fellow fan >:)

[@michaellesperance4358]

Happy Birthday thank you for the gift! finding your channel has been a blessing for shitting on Team Bloober and i love it

[@MertKayKay]

It's been a pleasure having you here Michael! Thank you! :D

[@victorgloom]

IDK if you'll read this, but I just wanted to let you know that you're my comfort watch taking me into the new year. Thank you for being so wonderful.

[@MertKayKay]

That's my pleasure Lulu ❤️ makes me so happy to hear it. I'll have to make you some more content haha!!

[@thomascking]

Am I losing it, did my comment about Gris disappear? If yes then, short version, agree the metaphors are hackneyed. Don't think passable metaphors are possible. Don't think game is over-reaching, because had no expectations of it reaching anything and being playable at the same time. Enjoyed the game overall, possibly because I didn't know it was meant to be about grief (thought it was just about depression).

[@MertKayKay]

Oh no, your Gris comment did disappear :'( And aww I know what you mean, one of my friends was like "It's about the stages of grief? I thought it was just a game", so I guess it wasn't especially overt!

[@Arium_DB]

I found your channel not too long ago and I genuinely just gotta say that I love your videos! I have an unhealthy obsession with long form analysis videos as I am in game design school and videos like these can be very useful to me, but your sense of humor and the way you present things is genuinely really fun and interesting to listen to! This video especially was really interesting to watch, seeing your experience and thoughts on all these games and how you present them to us in an easy to understand yet really fun and interesting way is so cool! I'm honestly really looking forward to your future videos, I'll also be binging your other videos again haha

[@soulsearcher9620]

The only comment that I can leave is this: You do not need to constantly add "in my opinion" into every claim you make. By saying "I think/believe" you've already made that clear that it's your belief, but there's always a reason someone develops a belief. Evidence from experiences and using Overwatch as an example, the gameplay mechanics, balance, stability and the demonstrated behaviour of playerbases. These are quantifiable things that can be measured in some way, and don't require a flame shield of "Just my opinion". I'm firmly in the camp of standing firm on your claims if you believe that you have a strong case backed up by examples and evidence you can relay should a debate come around about the subject, like your Suicide of Rachel Foster video where you went over the dialogue, character and overall story of the game, it's structure and by extension the messages it was portraying. Claim, evidence and conclusion that didn't require any form of "in my opinion" to be added in. I'm hoping that people stop using "in my opinion" which has to my mind been baked into internet culture. An implied passivity as though a definitive claim can't be made under some form of phantom threat, which just isn't the case, especially if you craft an argument with, again, proper evidence and examples that back up your claim. There will always be people who'll hurl slurs or strawmen in response no matter what you say since if it doesn't line up with their stance on something then the more aggressive internet lurkers will crawl from under the rocks to scream obscenities or somehow see politics where there were none mentioned whatsoever. The existence of those people isn't a reason to waver in your confidence nor certainty in an argument when you have the facts of the evidence on your side. This is basically the only issue I have watching any of your videos, aside from wishing they were longer though that's just me having a preference for a detailed breakdown of a subject. I'm a sucker for well spoken 1 hour + dissections of a game or film or book or tv show, especially considering that you don't do the same dull monotone and poorly paced speech that a lot of other long form creators do. Hearing well paced and enunciated speech that also conveys emotion and interest, that doesn't sound too much like you're reading a script one word at a time. That's 1 and a half issues I have with your content, and they could very well be regarded as nitpicks as well since they aren't detrimental to the viewing experience nor the quality of the content, but I thought I'd let my thoughts be known.

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks for the feedback! I don't use "In my opinion" to shield myself against hateful comments/abuse :D I tend to get the abuse anyway, regardless. Using run-up phrases like "in my opinion" ; "from what I could gather", etc., (basically anything that adds subjectivity to my sentence) just allows the sentences to flow better, it's like a run-up before a jump. Makes things less blunt, allows them to flow together Still, I appreciate the critique and will try and vary those run-ups a bit more :D

[@RedSpade37]

There's a FarCry 6!? Biggest plot-twist of this video for me, haha. Also, sorry that you had to deal with all those negative comments. Cheers, and looking forward to 2023!

[@MertKayKay]

Cheers RedSpade! :D No worries, you get used to them. Happy New Year!

[@xliquidpliskinx4327]

Hey have you ever played Blasphemous? I just started. You may or may not like it but I’d love to hear your thoughts of you get around to it! Thanks for the compilation! Happy New Year and Early Birthday!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Pliskin!! Happy New Year to you too! And I haven't played Blasphemous but I heard it's really good, I'd love to try it

[@Sikthkid]

Hey Hey!!! Welcome back. We missed you. I'm a Capricorn too! We rock, especially me. I mean We. I mean.... Wii? Anywho, I wanna see you on Twitch!!!! :D

[@MertKayKay]

WOO fellow Capricorn!! It's my New Years Resolution to schedule a return stream so hopefully I'll see you over there soon!

[@decca1810]

Hey I think you would like hollow knight it’s a really good 2d metroidvainia which plays like 2d Mario meets dead cells with souls like elements. You’ve probably heard this all before but I think you should try it if you haven’t already

[@decca1810]

Sorry I just watched your speedrun trophy list and I didn’t realise you already played the game

[@lightaflamethrower8573]

So glad you posted! Happy early birthday!!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Flamethrower!! :D

[@Sturmhauser]

Oh, wicked cool! I saw your Scorn review it was really funny with the snarkyness of it: "I didnt' play it, Smooth played it; looked good, played like shit and was boring - just like we all knew it was going to be. Good riddance" 😂 And as someone mentioned - also when it comes to us Xbox-players you have the 1000g and the 100 % of our hearts and I would redo the Dishonored Trails of Dunwall DLC for you

[@MertKayKay]

Patrick I'm so glad you like the Scorn review, I completely forgot to add it in here! And hahaha best of luck with the Trials of Dunwall B) We love the xbox boys. Happy New Year Patty!

[@Sturmhauser]

@@MertKayKay Happy new year to you too Mert Twitch von Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer! :D

[@friedmattato2158]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thought Stray was incredibly overrated. Not bad, but definitely not GOTY material.

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Mattato! :D And as always, thanks for watching. Happy New Year!

[@ayeurieleo7650]

I don't agree with everything you say in your videos and would never insult you for that. I like to watch commenting videos to see a different opinion of mine. I found your views very interesting even when I disagree. Very good work on the reviews and your video!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much Ayeurie! Thanks for watching

[@julianonofri1767]

Thank you for the video i am lying in bed with fever. And switching between whatching this and gilmore girls. And im realy glad i got to listen to all the weird and stupid comments it realy made my day. So thank you

[@MertKayKay]

Aww no worries Julian! I'm really ill too :(

[@robertolaiz]

Hi! Great video! Just wanted yo poing out that Gris is not French, but Catalan so you should pronounce the "s" at the end ☺️

[@MertKayKay]

Oh thank you so much, I have always wondered 😭

[@olympiaoshiadahail9216]

I had played maybe 2 or 3 games on this list. Did this stop me from listening to the whole thing? Absolutely not. Also all the best amphibians are extinct smh

[@MertKayKay]

What! I'm gutted to hear that they're extinct

[@jimos4ever322]

Rapid fire reviews to please my short-circuiting, attention-lacking brain? It's a holiday miracle!

[@MertKayKay]

Happy holidays Jimos!!! Happy new year and merry Christmas 😁😁 and thanks for watching

[@happyphiri4237]

Happy birthday for Sat Mert!!! Hope you enjoy your bday 💙

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Phiri!! :D Happy New Year!

[@jerryancel6944]

If the comment showcase has taught me anything, it's that in a world of bronze tier comments, be a platinum.

[@MertKayKay]

You're always a Plat to me Jez :D

[@BOSSLYninja]

Almost caught up on the whole KZbin catalog. Just wanted to drop in to say happy birthday!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Ninja!!! :D

[@estebanaguirre965]

people like you is so damn powerful, I'd fucking crumble under one single message like that

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks Esteban! You get used to them (as weird as it is to say), and they make good content!

[@izznt]

I'm so happy I feel like Peter griffin when he did crack and burst through the ceiling

[@MertKayKay]

I need to rewatch ALL of Family Guy, I love that show

[@NgaMarsters]

Oh my god you actually played Where the Water Tastes Like Wine! I don't remember if I was the one who recommend it to you but if I was I'm so happy 😊 I never minded the walking speed because of the soundtrack and overarching themes of old America. And it has inspired me to write my own stoires. Now go play Disco Elysium

[@MertKayKay]

It may well have been you Alan! I can't quite remember as it was so long ago, but I was only recommended it once - so if you ever did it, then it was you :D and thank you, as I loved it. Disco Elysium is actually on its way to me right now in the post :'D

[@NgaMarsters]

@@MertKayKay What do you know about Disco Elysium or are you just going in completely blind. It is a text based adventure game so it's understanble that it wouldn't be for everyone

[@MertKayKay]

@@NgaMarsters All I know is that I absolutely should not go for trophies or look at any guides first time round, and have an absolutely organic first-time playthrough :D

[@ptlemon1101]

Cheers, mate. It was a great year with good content. Hopefully, next one is gonna be even better!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you as always lovely Lemon! It's been a pleasure having you along :D

[@8saiharamasukoi]

also great vid! i really enjoyed the comment reactions. the responses were very funny

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much! :D

[@MrPooleish]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who preferred the RE3 remake to the RE2 remake.

[@MertKayKay]

Woo me and Chris McClain against the world. Have a great new year!

[@TheGrinningViking]

Totally wrong about stray, but I guess that's what dog people are like. 🤔

[@MertKayKay]

I am well-known for my affinity for dogs B)

[@critical-goat]

This is SO beside the point of this beautiful masterpiece of finding the most unique and fun to listen to ways to describe games but YOU WATCH STEPHANIE HARLOWE TOO??

[@MertKayKay]

I LOVE Stephanie Harlowe, she was my uni listening companion. I download Crime Weekly for every car journey too 🙏 Steph and Brian are my faves

[@critical-goat]

@@MertKayKay I've only recently started Crime Weekly once I ran out of her videos, and I thoroughly enjoy getting to listen to them. I will admit, it's much easier to be lulled into the videos where she speaks more. She just presents the topics in such a way I want to keep listening. Listening to her help me get into other long form content that wasn't creepy pastas.

[@renamon5658]

Happy early birthday and new year

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks Renamon! Happy New Year!

[@tylercramer3361]

Similar experience with Hades. Zagreus is just a cool dude.

[@MertKayKay]

He's awesome! :D

[@Bubbles-qy6wk]

I don't know how this video showed up in my feed, but I am glad it did.

[@MertKayKay]

Glad to have you here Bubbles :D

[@chimarvarmidium1425]

Sorry in advance for the WALL OF TEXT. TL;DR - what i think re2re is about. im suprised you disliked re2re so much, especially since you seemed so positive on 7 and i feel that 7 was a deliberate step back towards the design sensibilities that re2re eventually went for even harder. You mention twitch chat in the review so im going to check that out to see a bit more of why you disliked it as i am genuinely curious from a designers point of view why that is. specifically regarding MrX, i dont think his intent was to be scary. Resident evil 7 and 8 definetly lean into what id call "indie 1st person horror" a lot more, and the fact that you are in first person makes everything intrinsically scarier. but if you look at the old games theyre not "scary" games. They have a horror ambieance, and definetly lean into horror tropes, but in general they feel different from a pure spoopy game. im also a bitch boy crybaby (i dropped SOMA and Alien Isolation because of it) but i think besides the atmosphere being horror the moment to moment is much more survival. its like how alien and aliens have way different "scare" scores even though the dressing is largely similar. So take MrX. i dont think he's there to make you afraid of him, he's there to add a new element of complication to the traversal of an area you would have been getting comfortable with. imo the old style of resident evil gameplay is all about planning routes through spaces, and weighing up the resources it would take to do so. you clear an area to make it safer to go through, at the cost of maybe not being able to do so for somewhere else. thats really accentuated by the item box - youre led to think about routes from box to objective to box (which is why i think re3re should have had an attache case inventory system, as that games more linear structure just makes item boxes a pointless chore past the first small city area). So lets say youve started mastering the police station, you have your known routes you cleared, etc. Now mr X shows up and throws a spanner in the works - he's there to either be an obstacle to paths that would otherwise be safe or to push you into areas that arent with a timer on your back. i think a perfect example of that is the part in the jail cells, you either have to blast through mr X and company, or take an uknown route around as fast as you can. comparitevely i found jack baker to be much more of a "set piece". He's your big indie game horror monster trudging after you to be freaky. Mr X is there to light a fire under your ass and pelt you with wrenches. regarding the combat, in general i agree that the gamefeel isnt great, but not with the idea that its a last resort and not that its bad as a part of the whole. I dont think its a last resort, it's just another consideration for traversal. every enemy directly represents an amount of resources to take down. get good at combat and that gives you more breathing room for the next fight. be rash with it and that means you might have to stretch yourself thin for a while. Combat is essentially just a big estus management system between bonfires/finding new life gems. on top of that theres the tradeoff of investing less resources but not making an area completely safe by just stumbling zombos. this could hamper you in a moment of haste(say if mr x is chasing you) if you have to go down that path again or if its a high traffic zone and you're just running into the risk of taking a hit very often because of it. the idea of combat as resource managent is made even more apparent with the non primary weapons. A shotgun will get someone out of your face right away if you're getting overwhelmed or in a time crunch, but then you wont have that rarer shot for something else. The pistol ammo is abundant, but if theres any sort of strain it starts becoming less and less effective compared to others. the shooting is just alright i guess, and the bosses in general i found atrocious. I think the intent was for melee range with any zombie to be a big danger zone, hence the 360 no scope bites. i believe the intended way to dodge past them is to take a shot at their head to stumble them first. i played on normal, and you could comfortably clear every area if you were a good shot but in hardcore it would have been basically an entirely different game. instead of weighing resources on a kill by kill basis, youd be weighing it on a shot stumble by shot stumble basis. I do think its a fault to not communicate that clearly enough, but i dont think theres anything wrong intrinsically with wanting it to be that way. Maybe if it was a bit more like 4, where using resources makes it more guranteed but you can totally just shuffle right on by enemies, instead of being a grab for sure would overall make it better. Although i think it might have been the case of remake 3 kind of "teaching you wrong, as a joke" since you get to do a sick dodge roll parry in that game. 2 is a lot more about keeping these grabby folks as far away from you as you possibly can or investing the resources into making them so distracted by the bullet in their skull that they cant slap your ass as you sprint past. its a lot more of a pure numbers game. I personally find this sort of resource management quasi-metroidvania optimization gameplay extremely compelling. I guess the reason why i feel the need to type this all out (besides me just liking to think about stuff) is that it seems to me we haven't engaged with the game in the same way at all. I think it might be a situation similar to what you described between dark souls 1 and 2 players. I dabble with game dev and trying to understand this is quite valuable for that.

[@MertKayKay]

You make a very good case for it Chimar! 😁 I guess it's a combination of off expectations plus non-horror mechanics (when I was hoping for horror) Thanks for the explanation! I actually read the whole thing

[@chimarvarmidium1425]

@@MertKayKay I'm glad my wall of text made sense! I definetly find my own expectations to be the biggest hurdle to my enjoyment of media, so i've tried to always go in as blind as i can. Even so, there are things you just cant avoid, like expectations of a game in the same series. I'd just like to make extra clear that i'm not trying to neccesarily change your mind about it, we like what we like, i was just interested by how differently we saw it. Also it's great that you take the time to engage with your community, even on older videos! I look foward to more content once i get caught up with your backlog :)