Spiritfarer is a cozy resource management/base building game. The animations are gorgeous and the music is calming, if a bit banal. The game centers primarily around the characters, all of whom are well-written but forgettably inoffensive. Maintaining good relationships and progressing the character arcs requires numerous resources, which are gathered and processed by completing mediocre minigames. Traveling while balancing these tasks is initially a fun juggling act, but it's easy to get stuck with grinding for a particular resource or traveling to a distant location without being able to progress other goals. Depending on the level of complexity or difficulty a player is looking for this could be worthwhile, but I found myself hitting too many tedious road bumps.

Hyper Light Drifter is a precision combat, vibe-heavy exploration adventure. The visuals are gorgeous, featuring detailed pixel art splash screens and an evocative, utterly unique setting. A lot of gameplay elements are also communicated through visual design, with mixed success. It's bizarre that so much important information is cryptically inferred without words, but the phrase "your gun is now fully charged" flash on the screen occasionally.

Combat is fast but methodical. Without i-frames or the chain dash, dodging feels stiff and frustrating. The bosses are actually more fun than trash mobs, because the combat requires you to read individual enemy attacks and that's a lot easier to do when the enemy takes up most of the screen. Difficulty is pretty uneven, with sequential challenges rocketing up and plummeting down rapidly.

Checkpoints are often too far apart considering that the entire room state goes back to square one when you die. The game wants you to explore and push at the edges of the map, but you take damage if you try to dodge into an inaccessible area. These issues all add up to a game which feels smugly disrespectful of my time. It is beautiful and the levels are thoughtfully designed - I might still try the sequel, because this feels like a prototype with a lot of potential.

This game is a cumbersome mess. The opening is excruciating, with tons of slow, repetitive animations. The world is rife with invisible walls and dumb plot obstacles. Dialogue often gives the player multiple options that make no difference. Running consumes stamina even when not in combat (imagine always walking everywhere in Harvest Moon). Combat offers no defensive movement options, making every encounter a DPS grind. The story and setting are interesting, but the visuals are awful and frequently stutter. Basically this game is a collection of many of my gaming bugbears, with very little to redeem it.