So the other day i decided to boot up the PS4 to give my PC a break from a week of non stop Yakuza:Like a Dragon. I was having a kind of bad morning , and around noon had decided to scrap the day as a loss and just play videogames. I originally booted the system planning on getting into Vallhalla, yet the events of the morning left my heart and my soul in a real dark place, so i decided to see what Bugsnax was all about. I figured i would knock out the story, delete it and hop into vallhalla. Pretty quickly though i was obsessed with catching every single googly eyed bugsnax and feeding them to my new friends. I had always wished thar Pokemon would eventually flesh out creature catching past the usual " Slap thid electrocuted rat a couple times before shoving him into a ball" routine that theyve been coasting with for awhile. Bugsnax however requires you to learn how each of the mouth watering creatures operate in order to catch them. Usually the way the loop goes is, youll do a little bit of Pokemon Snappin by scanning each bugsnax with your camera, which will give tou helpful hints on what might or might not work with each bugsnax. Then once your fairly certain that Strabby's can not resist Chocolate syrup, you can whip out your tools to get the job done. Some Bugsnax like the strabby are kinda adorably dumb and will walk right into your trap, while others like the pinkle have barriers you need to overcome, and some youll just plainly have to sneak up on.

The fact that the gameplay is pretty fun, was ebough to make up for the gratingly repetitive mission structure, as i think every misison in this game esdentislly reauires you to go out grab a bugsnax and feex it to one of the towns surprisingly well developed characters.

You have come to snaktooth island in the hopes of your next big scoop, and what could be more trmpting to a budding journslist than an adventure on a mystefious island full of detectable wildlife. Only when you finnslly get there, shit has kind of gone off the rails and everyobe is kind of an asshole to eachother. The game balances some surprisingly heavy and buanced themes with its narrative. Every single one of the grumpuses is based around a very specific personality trait, which gives he cast an incredibly diverse feel. but past the surface level stereotypes, these grumpuses have really nuanced relationships with eachother that turn your this whimsical creature catching adventure into a deep complex narrative experience, atleast deeper thsn i ever expected from bugsnax.

Bugsnax is a inherently chill game, throughout your entire stay on Snaktooth island you will be suffocated by a blanket of chill vibes and a ost that i could just listen to for hours on end. Though fair warning, if your planning on plstinuming this game on PS4... this game LOVES its loading screens. Thanks to the nature of the game, essentially being a walk here pick that up walk back sort of game, towards the latter half of my time with the game turned just a tad tedious. These loadng screens can last upwards of a minute, and it wsdnt uncommon to tun into one every 40 or so seconds

This game is something special to me, and the time i spent platinuming this game within essentially a single sitting, will probably go down as one of the most chill and engaging gaming experiences ive ever had.

Tldr:i thought bugsnax was really fucking rad. What do you all think?